Aggressive Expansion
by vanillaninja2032
Summary: G1/2007 verse. Two girls are thrust into the transformer war after it is revealed their car is a decepticon. Please review.
1. Into the Night

A/N: This is a mixture of the '07 movie and G1. Jazz will be that of G1 just 'cause I like that one better, and because of that he's still alive. Enjoy!

This fic is co-written by vanillaninja2032 and Shke Behet. We write best together, but it will be posted under vanillaninja2032's profile.

Disclaimer: We do not own any part of Transformers, movie or otherwise, though god knows we wish we did.

Into the Night

Dead, Megatron was dead. He had been defeated by the most unlikely of foes, it wasn't the mighty Optimus Prime that struck him down, or the reputable Ultra Magnus, no it was a fleshling, a small insignificant organic bug destroyed the all powerful Megatron. He could laugh, all the times he tried to eliminate him and seize control of the decepticons a human did what he could not. He'd be ashamed if he wasn't so pleased with Megatron's death. He finally had what he always wanted; command of the decepticons and a dead Megatron. He should really thank that flesh creature the next time he saw him, right before he stepped on him. He laughed at the thought; imagining the look on the autobots faces when he exterminated their savior.

'And now this.' He thought. On the long journey back to Cybertron, he had received a transmission. A transmission from the communications officer Soundwave, who declared himself the new leader of the decepticons. Starscream inwardly smirked. Like that monotone idiot could rule the decepticons, that right was his and his alone. He was very eager to greet Soundwave once he reunited with his trine. He would find out what happens when people defy him.

He would crush any ill fated plans to usurp his newly acquired title, he would be recognized as the rightful ruler of the decepticons and they would all bow to him. He would be the greatest commander the decepticon forces had ever seen, he would put Megatron to shame. He would annihilate the autobots and rule Cybertron.

Now would be the perfect time to strike, the autobots would be too busy with their little human pets to suspect that he was so close to victory. He would display Optimus Prime's head on a pick as a testament to his might. He would drain the human's planet of all its resources and condemn them to death just as they had condemned his species to death by destroying the all-spark. They would know what it was like to watch each member of their race die and know nothing will come along to replace the one that was lost. He would torture them and destroy everything they treasure and when they beg him for death he will look down at them and say no.

But he needed troops before any of his plans could come to fruition, and for that he would need to deal with Soundwave.

'Now, at last, my time has come! Megatron will watch from the pit while I accomplish all that he himself failed to do! I will wipe the ground with Soundwave and I will rule!' And he screamed through the heavens.

~*~*~*~*~

Charlie ran a hand through her short brown hair and poured herself a glass of water. It had been a stay at home kind of day and she did just that. It had rained all day and was too wet and depressing to do anything, so she stayed inside and hung out. She walked around her house occasionally taking sips of her water. She lived by herself in a small house while attending college. Her family had moved to a bigger city and she had chose to stay behind. She sat down on her couch and was joined by her gray and white cat Skittles.

"Hey Skittles, what's up? Let's see what's on." She turned on the T.V. and flipped through channels until her phone rang. "Hey Alex, what's up?" She rolled over on her stomach and sent Skittles flying.

"Oops, sorry, no not you Alex, I just knocked Skittles over. Yeah she's fine." She chatted with her friend for a few minutes before she happened to glance at the clock.

"Oh shoot, I forgot I have to return those movies we rented last week tonight! Sorry, got to go." She hung up on Alex, who was still talking, and scrambled to find the DVDs. "Shit it's almost midnight." She grabbed a hoodie and ran out the door, getting into her black honda civic.

"Come on Nelly, we got to make it there in five minutes!" She turned on the radio and sped out of her driveway. She began humming with the radio, zooming down the empty streets until she caught a stoplight. "Damn." She sat idly, when suddenly the music vanished and static replaced it. "What the hell?" She fiddled with the dial, but with no luck. She sighed and turned it off. She drove over a hill and gasped suddenly. A bright light had filled the dark sky, illuminating a meteor the size of a house. And it was coming closer.

"Holy shit! I----what the hell!" Her car jerked suddenly, then raced down the hill. Charlie screamed and slammed on the breaks, but to no avail, she zoomed through several stoplights before making a hard left turn, spinning on the asphalt. "Oh my God!" Her seatbelt came off, and her door suddenly opened. She flew out on the sidewalk midspin, before her car screeched and zoomed away. She moaned and rubbed her head, which broke her impact. She got shakily to her feet. The light had vanished, along with her car. She stared in shock, before looking around. It was almost midnight, and the streets were empty, only a lonely streetlight stood above her, illuminating her bruised face. She dug in the pocket of her hoodie, before pulling out her cell phone. She tried dialing a number, but her hands were shaking. She finally sat down and put her head in her hands.

"Okay, I can do this." She flipped her phone back open, finally getting the number right. She bit her lip as she waited for it to ring. "Alex? Umm, I've got a problem."

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"It was like she was alive! I couldn't control anything, the brakes didn't work, and the steering wheel was jammed. I couldn't do anything! Then I was thrown from the car." Alex stared at her friend, half of her face was bruised so badly she could barely see her blue eyes, and her short brown hair was matted to her face with blood. She was brushing at her Happy Bunny pajamas, trying to get rid of the dirt and mud.

"How hard did you hit your head?"

"Huh? Um, fairly hard I guess."

"Hm. Where's Nelly, did a tow truck come and get her?"

"No that's what I was trying to tell you she drove off!"

"…By herself?"

"Yes!" Alex just stared at her friend. She had a concussion for sure.

"How hard did you say you hit your head?"

"I'm serious she drove away! By herself! Not by me! No driver just Nelly!" So her friend had a concussion for sure, and she was probably a bit drunk. Oh well. She reached over and patted Charlie on the head.

"Of course she did, now let's go get you some coffee and maybe you'll remember where you parked." Charlie wrinkled her nose.

"I didn't park anywhere, I—hey! It's true!"

"Okay whatever, let's not talk about this until you get cleaned up." She drove to Charlie's house and parked where Nelly usually was. "Your cut doesn't look very deep, I think you should take a shower and I'll try to find some bandages. Charlie nodded and went into the bathroom while Alex fiddled with the first aid kit. Her long dark blonde hair fell into her face, covering her green eyes, and she blew it away in annoyance. Maybe she should have taken her to the hospital? It was likely she stopped at a stoplight and someone threw her out of her car and drove off, but she said she didn't see anyone. She sighed and started the coffee. Her pirate pajamas were getting a bit chilly, Charlie's house was always like a freezer. She went downstairs and borrowed one of her hoodies before heading back into the kitchen. Charlie was there, sipping coffee in her blue robe, her hair standing up everywhere.

"Okay come here, I'll clean it for you." She walked over to Alex and she looked down on her head. At least being five inches taller than her would come in handy this time. She was right, the cut was shallow, she dabbed some hydrogen peroxide on it.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry, but I have to antiseptisize your head."

"Don't you mean you're disinfecting it?"

"Maybe, but at least now I know you don't have a concussion. You could never say a big word like that. Actually you can't anyway, maybe you do have a concussion." Charlie sighed.

"No I do not have a concussion. Now hurry up." Alex wrapped a thin bandage around her head like a headband and tied it in a bow.

"Well at least you'll look pretty." Charlie looked in the mirror.

"I don't have to wear this very long do I?" Alex shrugged.

"Probably not, check on it tomorrow and if it's healing ditch it. Just don't brush your hair right there."

"Right." They went into Charlie's living room and sat on the couch.

"So that's really all you remember. You don't remember anyone getting into your car and throwing you out or anything?" Charlie shook her head.

"No! I told you, Nelly just dumped me off." Alex sighed.

"Okay, well why did she do that? Did you piss her off or something?"

"No! I think she stole herself! Oh my gosh, we have to report this." She grabbed the phone and began dialing. Alex grabbed it from her and shut it off.

"You can't tell them your car stole itself. Now if you could remember who did steal your car then we'd be onto something." Charlie sighed.

"Fine, but there wasn't anybody else there!"

"Well you could just say your car is missing."

"No, what if they find her?" Charlie looked horrified.

"Umm, isn't that the point?"

"No! She'd kill them all! I'll have to go after her myself. If they see her driving herself they'll take her away from me!"

"Okay Charlie you're not making any sense you need to get some rest."  
Charlie stared at her.

"Now."

"Fine." They walked over to the door.

"I'm sure you'll be fine tomorrow. Just take some advil and go to sleep, and I'll come over tomorrow morning.

"Yeah okay. Night." Alex walked over to her jeep.

"See ya."

Alex got into her car and drove back to her house. Tomorrow Charlie would probably just call her back saying she remembered where she parked and she had simply walked into a pole and had gotten lost. Alex parked her car and walked into her house, never noticing the stealth jet flying above her.


	2. Encounters

Encounters

"Here kitties, kitties, kitties, here kitties, kitties." Alex was walking in the woods in the canyon behind her house, looking for her cats. "Emma, Blitz here kitties- oof." Alex fell on her butt. "What the hell?" She looked around, she was in a clearing with no trees, but she just hit something. She blinked and looked up; she could see the moon and stars, but nothing else around her. "Emma? Blitz, is that you? I'm sorry if I tripped over one of you…" She peered around carefully, trying to catch a glimpse of the black and white kittens, but saw nothing. She sighed and stood up.

"Come on kitties it's late, a fox or a coyote could get you." This happened almost every night. She tried to put the kittens in for the night, they think it's a game and lead her on a wild goose all throughout the large canyon behind her house. She sighed and kept calling them wearily, just wanting to go in and go to sleep. She started walking over to a shadowy grove of trees when she ran head first into something. She stumbled backward and held her head, which was pounding painfully.

"What the heck---Hello? Is anybody there?" She looked around but the clearing looked as deserted as ever. Her neck prickled and she felt fear start to rise up in her.

Every scary movie she had ever seen suddenly came into her head and she stood stock still, listening for footsteps. When she didn't hear anything she turned and started walking towards her house, keeping on eye behind her when something flickered and she caught sight of something in the moonlight_. _

It was large, too large, almost the size of some of the trees, its metallic body gleaming in the moonlight. It had a head, two arms and two legs, but was far larger than anything she had ever seen. What looked like weapons decorated it, and it had what looked like a rocket launcher on its shoulder.As quickly as it appeared it disappeared again. Alex breathed raggedly for a few seconds before swallowing and running back up to her house.

"There you are." Alex spotted her cats sitting on her porch step. "Come on there's something worse than foxes and coyotes in the woods." She grabbed her cats and locked all her doors, positive she wouldn't get any sleep that night.

"It's been two days! Two days and she still hasn't shown up!" Alex listened to Charlie rant on the phone. She still thought Charlie just hit her head, but after last night she wasn't too sure. "But don't worry I've got a plan!" Oh she knew she didn't want to hear this. "I'm going to track her! I've had my dog get her scent-"

"You don't have a dog."

"Not the point."

"Did you steal someone's dog?"

"Big picture Alex. I'll have my dog track her and once I find her I'll bring her back home."

Even if Charlie's stolen dog could find Nelly, and if she could manage to rope Nelly, then she would just get dragged behind Nelly, giving her even more brain damage. "What if she just drives away?"

"I thought of that! That's why I'm wearing roller blades!"

"Charlie I don't think that's a very good idea."

"I can't talk anymore Alex. I'm off to find my car!"

"Okay Charlie, you go do that. Call me if you find her. Actually take pictures too, that's something I have to see." She humored her. Charlie often had stupid ridiculous ideas that only people on television would come up with, but they usually ended with a lot of laughs for her.

"Okay see you later!" Charlie hung up excitedly and went and put on her special car finding outfit consisting of plaid shorts over black leggings, a neon green tank top under a Captain Planet t-shirt, knee and elbow pads, and an electric blue helmet. She saluted herself in the mirror and pulled her roller blades on. "Okay black dog whose name I do not know, find my car!"

"Yeah okay, see you later!" Alex put her sunglasses on and walked out of the mall to her car. She only had a four hour shift today and was anxious to get back home to go back into her canyon. She realized it was probably a stupid idea but she felt safer checking it out in daylight. She thought about calling the police, but realized they would think she was crazy if she had no proof. And she didn't. She brightened when she opened her paycheck. This would buy her that new motorcycle helmet she'd been wanting. Now she just had to get a motorcycle….

Charlie sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. She didn't have any luck looking for her car; she even put up stolen car posters! And still no luck.

"Come on black dog lets go home." Charlie looked around for her dog only to find him running away from her. "Oh come on does everything I have, have to run away from me? This is great, just f-ing great." Charlie started skating back to her house, her head hanging in defeat.

Once she got back she decided that the only thing that could make her feel better was Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

"Oh Nelly, why did you have to go and leave me? Was it something I did?" After Charlie discovered that ice cream would not make her feel better, she decided that rum would. "Nelly, think of all the great times, the crashes, the free food I got for being in you, look I even took pictures!" She held up a picture of her and Nelly, then threw it in the air and stumbled out of the room. Her gray and white cat ran past her, almost tripping her.

"Skittles, is that you? Skittles, Nelly ran away, go get her!" The cat rolled over. "Damn." She took another swig of her rum, then shrugged and chugged it. She tripped and fell down the stairs, landing next to her front door. "Owwww, Skittles why?" Lights flashed outside, and she sat up and squinted out the window. "Nelly? Nelly you came back!" Charlie threw her front door open and stumbled down her drive way. "Nelly I love- you're not Nelly." Charlie stared at the green jeep in front of her. Hm, Alex always drove jeeps. This must be Alex!

"What are you doing here? Have you come to help me? Let's go find Nelly!" Charlie opened the door to the jeep and climbed in. "Alex! We have to go find Nelly! God only knows what she'll do if someone else finds her, she never did like strangers…."She blinked and squinted at the person in the driver's seat. They were tall, blonde, and wearing green. Yep, definitely Alex.

"We have to find her before she does something worse! Like holding up a convenience store! Then where will we get junk food and cigars? Where?!" Charlie moaned and hit her head on the dash board. Hound blinked confusedly. Did this human know about transformers? There had been traces of decepticon energy signatures all around this town, the strongest coming from this organic dwelling. Maybe this human female did know about transformers. If the decepticon came back she might be in danger, but she might also be a decepticon sympathizer. Hound wasn't given a chance to decide what to do with the girl, as she proceeded to pass out in him. Well he couldn't transform with her in him, and he couldn't remove her. He had no choice but to take her back to the base with him.

Alex had finished checking out her canyon and found nothing. So she fed her family a story about someone seeing a mountain lion down there so they would stay away. Now there was no way someone was going to go back there and get killed by some giant….thing on her watch. She walked back up to her house and changed clothes. She had to get to her job at the mall in an hour, and she couldn't go in sweats. She worked at a clothing store, not exactly ideal, but college, gas, and car payments really added up. But her boss was understanding, and her parents just happy they didn't have to pay for it. She changed into black pants, red tennis shoes, and a vintage t-shirt over a long white sleeved shirt. She slapped on some makeup and grabbed her purse.

"Hey Emma, Blitz, what trouble are you guys getting into now? Oh, hi Tammy." Tammy was their nine year old tabby. She didn't like the kittens very much. She stalked into the garage, Emma trying to follow her. She growled and the little white kitten backpedaled into her black sister.

"Tammy, be nice they're just babies." She sighed and went into the garage to refill their food and water. An unfamiliar looking box sat on the workbench. She frowned and picked it up. "A tape deck? What is this doing here?" Alex picked up the blue tape deck and tried to make it work. It must have been her dad's, he always keeps this stuff around. "No batteries. Huh."

She set it down outside the garage and started walking away. She was almost to her car when the sound of metal grinding on metal met her ears. A shadow grew in front of her and she paled. She turned around slowly. Alex was met with a large box-shaped thing in front of her, like the one from the night before it had a humanoid shape, and was at least twenty-five feet tall. It had a clear glass panel on what should have been its chest, with a purple crowned symbol on it.

"Consort of Blackfire identified. Operation retrieval: commenced." Before Alex even had a chance to scream the metal being grabbed her and flew away.

"Have you identified the source of the decepticon signal?"

"No sir."

"Have Hound try to sniff it out when he returns from patrol." Optimus turned back to the control panel, taking another look at the signal. It was strong.

"He's back man, and he's got cargo." Optimus turned.

"What?" Jazz motioned to the door, and Hound entered, followed by Ratchet, who held the body a human female in his hands. "Tell me everything."


	3. First Impressions

First Impressions

"— she seemed to know about us, and with traces of decepticon energy around, I decided it wouldn't be right to leave her there." Hound finished his explanation to Optimus Prime and the rest of the autobots. Optimus rubbed his chin.

"Our code of secrecy from the humans has been breached again. This is becoming all too frequent. You must return her to her home before she wakes up. Post a patrol around her house, I will not be responsible for endangering another human with the knowledge of our existence." Hound was about to give an affirmative nod, when he noticed the human stirring in his hand.

"She's waking up! What do we do?" But before anyone could say anything, she opened her eyes.

Charlie blinked blearily. Her head was pounding, her bed was hard, and she seemed to be much higher off the ground then normal, damn she passed out on her roof again. She rubbed her eyes and started to sit up when she felt something push her down again. She tried to get up again and the same thing happened. What the hell? She attempted to flip on her back and see what was going on, but she only made it half way. Suddenly she found herself staring at a giant robotic face.

"I'm still drunk." The giant metallic face stared at her with shining eyes. She reached for it. "Pretty." All the autobots looked at Optimus, trying to figure out what to do. Hound tried to push her down again, maybe she would just go back to sleep and he could take her back and pretend none of this happened.

Charlie stumbled and tried to stand. "Well thank you very much, but I need to—oh boy." She stumbled again and fell off the side of Hound's hand. He fumbled and caught her in his other hand. "Ouch, stop already. Geez, stupid drunkness, screw this I'm getting back in bed. She tried to pull the edge of Hound's hand over her like a blanket, but only managed to scrape her nails on his hand. "Ow. This is the worst drunk morning ever."

"Hound man you broke her."

"He did not break her Jazz. The human is simply recovering from intoxication, and is experiencing shock like symptoms."

"Well, she's seen us now, what we gonna do?" Optimus sighed.

"We can't take her back now. Ratchet, is she functioning enough to speak with me?" Ratchet frowned and stared at the girl contemplatively. She was trying to climb down Hound, who kept yelping and grabbing her whenever she slipped. She seemed completely oblivious to the fact that she was surrounded by giant metallic aliens.

"Optimus, she's not yet in full use of her senses, if we were to take her back to her dwelling she might believe this is, as the humans say, a bad dream."

"Giant robots I know you're talking about me. It's rude. Learn some manners. Where are my shoes?" They blinked and looked at her in surprise. She pointed at Ratchet and Optimus in accusation. "Yeah you! I've had dreams about giant emus before, you don't scare me! Now give me back my shoes!" She stamped her foot on Hound's hand. He looked at Optimus and Ratchet with a pleading expression on his face. He didn't know what to do with the little human, and frankly, she was scaring him. Optimus sighed, there was now no way not to involve this human.

"What is your name young one?" Charlie got angry.

"God damn it it's not my fault I look like fifteen, for your information I'm nineteen. I'm a legal adult both here and in Canada!"

"Whoa calm down little lady he only called you that because all us here are older than your entire race." Jazz looked at the human girl, who at least had the decency to look ashamed.

"Oops sorry. Didn't know. My bad, I've got a hang over and once again I've woken up in a home that isn't mine. My name's Charlie. I'm really sorry about yelling at you."

"All's forgiven. Tell me, have you noticed anything strange near your home recently?" Charlie frowned.

"Well, the mailman used to come at exactly 12:32, but now he comes at 12:49. I sense a conspiracy, but as of yet have been unable to prove anything. But I am watching." Ratchet looked nervously at Optimus.

"Like I said, she is not in full use of her senses yet. My data base indicates that a liquid substance called coffee will help her recover from her recharge cycle. Perhaps I should go and get some from the human quarters." Optimus nodded.

"Go, we will watch her to make sure she doesn't harm herself." He looked over just as Charlie once again fell from Hound's hand.

"Thank you. So what are you guy's, gundams or something?"

"We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron, commonly referred to as autobots."

"Huh?"

"We come from a planet light years away that was devastated by a war that has plagued us for millennias." Charlie listened attentively as the large red and blue robot told her about their war and their existence on Earth.

"Um that's a lot to take in. You guys can really never go home?"

"No young one, we cannot."

"I'm sorry." Optimus looked down at Charlie, surprised by the odd compassion this girl seemed to have.

"We have found a new home and new allies on your planet." Charlie nodded and tried to think of something to say, awkward moments of silence and alien robots didn't mix well she decided.

"So what are your names?"

"I am Optimus Prime, leader of the autobots. The one holding you is Hound, an autobot scout, and this is my first lieutenant Jazz."

"How you doing little lady?" Charlie smiled up at the white and blue bot. He was cool. Just then two more autobots entered the room. She recognized the white and red bot as the one who told everyone she was drunk. She didn't know the other one, he was white with green and red paneling, with what looked like light bulbs as ears.

"Ah and this is our chief medical officer Ratchet." Optimus motioned toward the white and red autobot. "And our engineer Wheeljack." She waved, feeling slightly self conscious. They were all at least twenty feet tall, and they were all staring at her.

"Umm, nice to meet you. What's that?" She pointed to the tiny thermos in Ratchet's hand.

"This is for you. To help you recover from your recharge cycle." Ratchet held his hand out to her, the tiny thermos balanced in the palm of his hand. She reached out and grabbed it, curious.

"Hey, it's coffee! Wow, how'd you get this?" Ratchet seemed pleased with himself.

"We keep human food and beverages in the human quarters for our visitors." Charlie took a long swig of the coffee.

"You have human visitors?"

"Yes, at times it's necessary to have them stay with us." As Charlie started drinking the coffee her sobriety slowly started returning.

"Are any humans here now?"

"No they are all gone." Charlie stopped drinking her coffee at that moment. Realization slowly dawned on her; she was sitting on a giant alien robot's hand. There were no other humans around, and she had absolutely no idea where she was. And in every single alien movie she had ever seen had the aliens planning on eating the entire human race. A chill went down her spine. What if there was something in the coffee?

"Um Hound can you put me down please?" Hound smiled down at her.

"Sure." He lowered her slowly to the ground. She looked up at them all staring down at her. She swallowed and told herself not to panic. Of course they would lie to her, dear god she was surrounded by giant robots. She smiled at them and started backing up slowly.

"So where exactly are these human quarters? I need to use the facilities." Ratchet nodded.

"Not far, down the corridor to the left. Hound will escort you." She looked nervously up at Hound, who was smiling at her.

"Okay, lead the way."

"I could carry you there, it would be faster." Charlie shook her head.

"No, no. I would rather stretch my legs." He began walking very slowly, looking behind him to make sure she was following. She looked nervously at the others before following him. She could get away from one of them, then barricade herself in their 'human quarters' until she found a vent or something she could escape through.

"Just through there." Hound pointed at a much smaller doorway, and Charlie almost sighed with relief. She skated around him anxiously and ran through the sliding doors. Hound frowned and went back to join the others.

"I think she might be intimidated by us." Ratchet nodded.

"Yes, after she drank that coffee, I noticed her heart rate increase and her adrenaline spike." Optimus frowned.

"She is afraid of us." Hound looked surprised.

"But she was acting so friendly! It looked like she was taking it rather well." Ratchet sighed.

"Only because she was intoxicated. It is rather like being over-energized." Exclamations of understanding went through the room. Ratchet nodded.

"It is natural for humans to fear us. We are far larger and stronger than them, not to mention inorganic. All life here is organic. To them, we go against nature itself. But she will calm down, then we may question her about the traces of decepticon energy." Optimus nodded.

"Yes, give her time to herself. We will question her later. Hound, keep an eye on her, and tell us when she comes out." Hound nodded.

"Right."

Charlie was freaking out. Being surrounded by giant robots was fine when she had a hang over and wasn't at full thinking capacity, but now she was terrified. She walked around the large room, looking around. There was a row of beds, a couple of couches set up in front of TV, a fridge, and a stove with a microwave over it in the corner. Charlie walked through the door leading to the bathroom. It was huge, with a full shower and Jacuzzi tub. She sighed and leaned over the sink.

Her short brown hair was sticking up and she was still wearing her captain planet shirt, tights, and plaid shorts. All in all, she looked like she spent the night drinking. She sighed. What was she going to do? She didn't even know where she was. Yet…they could have killed her when she was asleep, or maimed her or something. Instead, they gave her coffee. Maybe they weren't going to hurt her. Really they gave her coffee when she had a hang over, that's the mark of a good person. She took a few deep breathes. This has been the oddest past few days of her life. Her car runs away, she gets abducted by aliens and she had a killer hang over. Today sucks. She took another few deep breathes. If they planned on killing her they wouldn't have told her their story or left her alone. Charlie opened the door leading out of the human quarters, and went back into the autobot control room.

"Soundwave to Barricade: Captured human consort of Blackfire. Returning to base, continue ground patrols of area designation: Nevada." Soundwave looked down at the organic femme he captured. She had passed out due to lack of oxygen from the high elevation he was flying at.

"Blackfire? I thought he was dead."

"Negative, Blackfire still functions."

"Right. Barricade out." Soundwave continued flying towards his base one hundred miles off the coast of Oregon. Once in range he had Rumble raise the tower and entered.

"Hey boss, whoa, what's with the squishy?" The small purple decepticon leaned up and peered curiously at the human in Soundwave's hand.

"Identification: Human associate of Blackfire."

"Blackfire? He's on earth? Huh, well what'd ya know. What are we going to do with it?" Soundwave lowered his hand and Rumble took the girl from him, casually letting her flop over his shoulder plates.

"Confine organic in containment cell." Rumble nodded.

"Right on boss." He bounced down the corridor to the brig, unaware of the girls head hitting his armor. He opened the smallest cell and tossed her in. The fleshy groaned when she hit the ground. "I've never heard a squishy make that sound before!" Rumble was amazed, and started poking the human.

"Mmphu. No!" Rumble stared amusedly as the fleshy tried to swat him away.

Alex groaned to herself. She must have hit her night stand or something. Her arm was throbbing and something kept jabbing her. She rolled over and rubbed her eyes before sitting up. As she opened her eyes, something jabbed her in the side of her head.

"Ouch! What the hell! Cut it out!" She turned around, expecting to see her little brother. Instead she was met with a seven foot purple robot. She stared incomprehensibly.

"It talks!" Rumbled crowed happily. Not only did the squishy make funny sounds, but it talked to him! He'd been really bored since Frenzy had died. Now he had something to play with! He jumped up happily and grabbed the squishy's appendages and began pulling and swinging them around, curious. Alex yelled.

"Stop it! That hurts!" Rumble stopped, and peered at her.

"Hurts? It can't hurt, squishy's are squishy! Look!" He pinched her stomach.

"Ouch! My skin is sensitive! It hurts when you do that! I don't know what the hell you are, or where I am, but leave me alone!" Rumble leaned forward, so that his face plate was near hers.

"Squishy is with Rumble and Soundwave. Soundwave brought squishy back as a prisoner!" He laughed. Alex paled. There were more?

"What is Soundwave?" Rumble puffed up.

"Soundwave's the big boss! He's the awesomest, strongest decepticon ever!" Alex blinked. So this robot was a lacky? Soundwave sounded robotish too. She blinked. For being captured by robots, she felt oddly calm. Maybe because the purple guy was acting like a little kid…

"Well I want to talk to your 'boss'." Rumble laughed

"You can't talk to Soundwave fleshy. 'Sides it's not like you could get anything out of him." Rumble was about to start playing with Alex's limbs again, when she quickly scooted away.

"What the hell does that mean? And why the hell am I here? How did I get here?"

"Soundwave brought you here don't you remember squishy?"

"No I—he was the tape deck wasn't he? I insulted a giant tape deck and now I'm going to be pulled apart by his lackey!"

"You insulted the boss? Not smart. But that's not why you're here. It's cause you're Blackfire's consort." Alex stared at the purple robot did he just call her a prostitute? Do robots have hookers?

"Who is Blackfire?"

"You don't know him? Hm maybe Soundwave got the wrong human. Guess we just have to kill you. Oh well." Rumble brought out his guns and pointed them at Alex.

"Wait! Did you say Blackfire? Oh I know him we go way back. I thought you said Blackmire. I don't know a Blackmire, but me and Blackfire are like two peas in a pod."

"Oh well in that case." Alex sighed as Rumble put his weapons away.

"Well what's he gonna do with me then?" Rumble scratched his chin.

"Well, you'll be used to lure out Blackfire of course. Don't know what he'd want with you though. Hm, well he always was an odd one." Alex swallowed as Rumble came towards her again and grabbed her arm. She kept it tight.

"It bends this way, but not this way?" Rumble bent her arm toward her, then tried to bend it away. Alex screamed as he twisted her arm away.

"Of course it doesn't! Does yours!" Rumble stopped and bent his own arm. It didn't go that way either.

"Hm, but you're so soft and squishy you should be able to go in all directions."

"Well I don't."

"You just have to try harder." Rumble made an attempt to bend Alex's arms in the wrong direction again, before he received a call on his comm link.

"Soundwave to Rumble. Report to command center."

"On my way. Rumble out. Too bad squishy. Don't worry I'll come back, and help you fix your arms so they can go in both directions!" Alex let out a breath in relief once Rumble left her alone. She looked around the room she was in. It was huge, around the size of a football field, and filled with huge holding cells. Hers was easily the smallest. She scooted to the back corner of the cell and wrapped her arms around her legs. This was not good. She'd been knocked around by a robot that thought she was a fleshy pretzel or something, and she was kidnapped by a tape deck. She was bruised, bleeding and cold. The room she was in was freezing. She looked around herself again, and she spotted something that made her heart skip a beat. Her purse! Thank goodness robots didn't know what purses were. She dug through her purse and pulled out her cell phone. Please let this work.

"----it was shown that the decepticon energy signal was strongest at your particular dwelling. Do you have any idea why?" Charlie looked at Ratchet, confused. Optimus, Jazz, and Hound looked on expectantly.

"Umm, what's decepticon energy? I haven't seen any energy around my house." Ratchet sighed.

"Of course. Cybertonians give off a particular energy signature, comparable I suppose to human scents. Decepticon energy is different still from autobot energy signatures."

"And the decepticons are the bad guys you told me about that started your war?"

"Yes."

"And they were strongest around my house?"

"Yes."

"If only that was the strangest thing that ever happened to me. Okay so, why were they strongest around my house?"

"We're not sure. We were hoping you could tell us. Have you seen anything odd around your house? Anything mechanical moving by itself, any strange sounds, equipment failure…" Charlie frowned.

"No, everything works fine." She wasn't sure why she just lied to them.

"Hm. Are you sure?" Charlie was about to respond when two autobots entered the room. One was white with blue legs and paneling on his shoulders, and what looked like a rocket launcher attached to his shoulder. The other one was larger and black with tires on his shoulders.

"Prime, we have a problem." Optimus nodded and turned his attention to Charlie.

"Would you mind returning to the human quarters?"

"Sure." Charlie left the room, but didn't return to the human rooms. Something was up and she wanted to know what. She stayed near the door and tried to listen to what was going on in the room. She had her ear pressed against the door, when her cell phone rang. She didn't even know she had it on her.

"Hello?"

"Oh Charlie thank god. I've been kidnapped by giant robots!"

"Alex? Wait you too?"

"What they got you too? Where are you? Don't let the purple one grab you! He thinks arms are fun to pull off."

"You don't have any arms!? Shit! I'm outside the control room. Wait, what purple one?"

"He's seven feet tall and worships this tapedeck called Soundwave."

"There's no purple robot."

"Yes there is he thinks I'm a human Stretch Armstrong!"

"I haven't seen a purple one yet, where are you?" Alex looked around her cell, shivering, she was somewhere near the control room, she heard Rumble enter the door right outside the one holding her in when he said he was going to see Soundwave.

"Umm, I'm in a holding cell somewhere near the control room. Come get me, but watch out for the purple guy, don't let him see you!"

"Okay, I'll find you!" Charlie looked around; a long corridor stretched in each direction from what she assumed was the control room. There were no doors nearby except for the small ones that led into the human quarters.

"Umm, Alex there are no cells by the control room, are you sure that's where you are?" Alex frowned and pulled at her tangled hair.

"Well, I think so…."

"Wait, I'll just go ask Hound, he's very nice." Alex sat up and screamed.

"NO!" Charlie dropped her phone in surprise. She could still hear Alex yelling. She picked it quickly.

"Why, its okay, they've been nice, they can help you—"

"Charlie listen, don't believe them, don't listen to them, you've got to get out, and go tell the, the army or something okay? Charlie please get out—" She was choking up now.

"Alex listen. I need you to calm down. I won't go get Hound, but you need to calm down. Breathe. There are no cells by the control room. Alex, tell me something else."

"There's nothing else to tell! I'm in a big cold room. I—AAAAHHHHH!"

"Alex! ALEX! Shit!" Charlie ran to the door of the control room and started banging on the door. "Let me in! Let me in! God damnit! OPEN THE DOOR!!!" Charlie was desperate she was running into the door trying to knock it open even though she knew it was hopeless. "FUCKING STUPID ROBOTS OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR!!!" She was near hysterics, when the door finally slid open.

"What is the meaning of this?" Charlie didn't even pay any attention to Ironhide as she ran between his feet.

"Track this!" Charlie held her cell phone up for the autobots to see.

"What?"

"I just got a phone call and I want you to track it!"

"Why?"

"Because there was a scream, but not here, so she's not her so trace my fucking phone call!"

"Girl we do not understand what you are saying."

"My friend called me, she was kidnapped by robots too, but unless you guys have been lying to me and have a purple guy who likes to tear arms off, then she's not here. So trace the phone call I got!" The autobots in the room looked at Optimus, who looked at Mirage.

"Your friend, the one with the long hair?"

"Yes, and she's gone, please help!"

"She was the one I was watching. Optimus, I was going on patrol and when I came back she was gone, the place reeked of Soundwave." Gasps went around the room.

"Soundwave is here? And he captured a human, why would he…."

"SHUT UP!!!" They all looked at Charlie in surprise. She was glaring at them, breathing hard. "This Soundwave guy, whoever he is, is hurting her, and you need to find her now." She held her phone out. Wheeljack took it tentatively.

"This is a communications device." Charlie nodded impatiently. "And, you want us to track your friend on it?"

She nodded vigorously, Wheeljack frowned, or at least she assumed he frowned.

"It is very primitive, I'm not sure I can----" Charlie grimaced and took a deep breath.

"You are an advanced robotic race from another planet and you CAN'T TRACK A CELL PHONE? WHAT KIND OF INCOMPETENT INEPT STUPID REJECT TOASTERS ARE YOU!!!" The autobots all stared at her in surprise. A tiny little human female just called them toasters and insulted their hospitality. Ironhide growled.

"Now look here, you----"

"Wait Ironhide." He looked at Wheeljack in surprise. "She's right, I'm just unfamiliar with tracing this signal, I haven't been on this planet as long as you have. I can track it." He looked right at Charlie, who deflated.

"Thanks. I'm sorry." Optimus nodded to her.

"You are worried for your friend. It is understandable. Wheeljack, get us a fix on that call, Mirage, how long ago did she disappear?"

"A little less than a joor." Jazz turned to him sharply.

"And you only now reported back to us? What the heck man?" Optimus walked over to Mirage, who was standing near the control panel.

"Mirage, you should have reported the girl's disappearance immediately."

"Soundwave had revealed himself and he was without his cassetticons. I believed taking down Soundwave would be easier when he was burdened with a human. I attempted to track him and take him out. He knew I was following him, and was able to get the jump on me and knocked me into stasis." Charlie was mad.

"You tried to attack him when he had Alex! You could have killed her."

"Defeating Soundwave was more important then the life of one organic."

"YOU SON OF A BITCH THE HELL IT IS!!!" She started toward him, not knowing what she was going to do, only that she really wanted to hit him. Suddenly, a metallic hand wrapped around her and lifted her off the ground; she turned to stare at Jazz's face. He was glaring at Mirage.

"Hey man, not cool. We owe the humans everything man. If it wasn't for them, Megatron would have us all in the scrap heap by now." Ratchet nodded.

"The humans are courageous and they are kind enough to share their home with us. They are our comrades now and you will treat any and every human you meet the same way you treat any of us. Is that understood?"

It looked like Mirage had muttered something under his breath, it was too low for Charlie to hear, but she'd bet anything that it was pretty insulting to humans.

"I said is that understood soldier?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Wheeljack, how are you coming with tracing the signal?"

"I've got it sir. It's coming from a few miles off the coast of the Pacific ocean."

"Excellent." Optimus looked at Ratchet in amusement. He had taken a great liking to the humans. It was spark warming to see.

"Yes, let's find a way to get your friend back."

"No stop it!"

"Squishy has been bad, squishy needs to be punished…" Rumble sang gleefully as he shoved his fist into Alex's stomach. She gasped and fell to the floor as her bottom two ribs cracked. He had crushed her cell phone and told her she had been a 'bad femme', before deciding to 'teach her a lesson' so her cell signal wouldn't interfere with 'the big boss's work'.

"Now now squishy, we're not done yeeetttt." He picked her up by her neck and shoved her up against the wall, his hand on her throat. Alex tried to pry his hand off. He was crushing her wind pipe. "That's not going to work." Alex stared at Rumble in horror, he looked absolutely delighted to see her trying to free herself. He was too strong, but she needed to breathe, she could feel her lips turning blue, and she was starting to see black spots. She tried kicking, tried anything she could. She didn't want to die like this! Suddenly she fell to the floor. Rumble must have let her go right before she was about to black out. So he wasn't going to kill her just yet. He was just going to torture her. Teach her a lesson he said.

"Squishy, you're----" But he stopped and cocked his head. "Sorry squishy, big boss is calling, time for you to recharge." The last thing she heard was his cackling before her head slammed into the ground.


	4. Savior

A/N: Everyone will be in their G1 forms except for Ironhide and Bumblebee. Both their movie forms were way cooler, way cooler than Ironhide as a red van and Bee as a volkswagen beetle, so yeah. And please review!

Savior

"---Once on the ship we will disguise ourselves as cargo and wait till Soundwave exits. Then Mirage will go in and acquire the girl while we distract Soundwave and the casseticons." Optimus motioned to the screen above the control panel, which showed an image of Soundwave's base in the Pacific. Jazz crossed his arms.

"What about Laserbeak Prime? He's bound to see us coming a mile away."

"He's right Prime. There's no surprises with Laserbeak." Ironhide looked over to Ratchet and Jazz, who were near the far side of the control panel, both of them near Hound, who was holding the girl, Charlie. She was pale and still. While they arranged for a military ship to take them on the Pacific, Ratchet had told her of the Battle of Mission City, and their human comrades Sam and Mikaela. They had went through a lot, but had come out alive and were now seniors in high school. They visited the autobots when they could, and promised Charlie that she would meet them. They all hoped the presence of human peers would help calm her down.

"Any word yet from Bee?"

"No, Bumblebee has not yet answered the communications. He and Sam will not get here before we leave." Jazz crossed over to Charlie and took her from Hound. It had been pass the human around for the last couple hours. She sat on his shoulder.

"Sam and Bumblebee can't come? I wanted to meet them."

"It's cool, they'll be here in a month or so if they can't come now. Then we be partying!" Jazz danced around with Charlie, who was giggling. Optimus looked at the two, it was good to see the girl smile again. It had been a few hours since she had learned of her friend's abduction, and she had barely said a word after her initial shock and anger at the whole ordeal.

"Taking out Laserbeak is going to fall on you Jazz. You will lure him away from the rest of us and distract him, while Mirage sneaks into the base. Blinding Soundwave will be impossible but taking out Laserbeak will give us a large advantage."

"Right Prime." Jazz saluted. Suddenly Charlie spoke up.

"I want to come." All the autobots stared at her. They told her what happened at Mission City, and she still wanted to go. Optimus spoke up.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible. I will not allow another human to be put in a dangerous situation. No one would be able to protect you if the plan went wrong and we engaged the decepticons."

"Alex is probably freaked, and the last thing she would need are a bunch more giant robots grabbing her. She doesn't know you guys don't intend to harm her. You'll probably just scare her, If I was there then it would be easier to get her to calm down and listen. Besides she's my friend."

"That may be so, but I still won't allow it."

"But—"

"I'm sorry, but no."

"That's not fair! I'm not an autobot you can't order me around!" Optimus frowned at her.

"You are a young civilian femme, not a warrior, and not in your military. I can not guarantee your safety, and you can not defend yourself. These foes will kill you if they get the chance. I'm not going to give it to them." Charlie glared.

"I can too defend myself! I'm from a family of hunters, I'm great with a gun!"

"No." She would have continued arguing, but the look on Optimus' face made her quiet. She didn't know it was possible for robots to look stern and angry, but Optimus was doing a good job of proving her wrong. His mad look could've rivaled an angry nun.

"Fine."

"Good. You will not be here alone, Wheeljack and Ratchet will be staying at base with you."

"Why can't I go home?"

"Because it was not Soundwave's signal we detected around your dwelling. We have not been able to identify this decepticon, and so we must assume he is still at large. You will stay here until we can guarantee your safety." Charlie slumped.

"Fine. Just get my friend back safely and you've got a deal." Optimus smiled.

"Alright. We must get to the coast of Oregon to meet our ship. Autobots, transform and roll out!" Charlie just stared at the space the autobots had just been.

"You guys turn into cars?" Charlie's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Our alt forms vary but we are all transformers." Ratchet answered her.

"And you don't need drivers when you're cars?"

"Of course not." Charlie paled.

She was cold. That was the first thing Alex thought when she woke up. The second, was that her whole body hurt, and she didn't' remember why. She opened her eyes and was met with the sight of blood on a large metal wall. Oh that's right she remembered now. She'd been kidnapped by robots. And when she got a hold of Charlie and they found her she was almost killed. She scrubbed at her dirty face and pulled her hair out of her face, it was matted with blood. She felt her head., and found a small gash. Head wounds bled a lot, so she wasn't worried. She sat up and sneezed, then groaned. She was starving and her mouth was dry. They hadn't given her anything to eat or drink the entire time she had been there. How long _had _she been there?

"One day, two….How long have I been out?" She winced at her hoarse voice, and tried to stand, but a sharp pain in her leg brought her back to a sitting position. She could really go for a bubble bath about now. '_I haven't had a shower in days, geez that's almost worse than not eating! Ugh.'._

"Well, luckily I wear layers." She took off her t-shirt and her long white sleeved shirt, before putting her t-shirt back on. "Well it's kind of clean, at least it wasn't touching my skin." She wrapped her white shirt around her waist and took off her shoes. Her toes felt bruised. She rubbed her feet through her socks and rubbed her eyes. She'd had her contacts in for who knows how long now, she was going to get an eye infection for sure. If she lived much longer. That was a big if. She leaned against the wall and let out a sigh. She didn't know where she was. And that meant Charlie didn't know where she was. She didn't know how anyone would be able to find her, or if they did how she would be able to get out. She could barely move. Suddenly the door opened.

"Human consort of Blackfire still functions." Alex looked up at the tapedeck who caused this entire mess.

"Why am I here?"

"Confirmation of Blackfire's location needed."

"You want me to tell you where this Blackfire guy is?"

"Affirmative."

"Why the hell should I?"

"Disobedience is not an option. Insubordination will be dealt with deadly force." Alex gulped. "Location of Blackfire required."

"I don't know where he is."

"Answer undesirable. Where is Blackfire."

"I don't know!" Alex was near hysterics. "Where was the last place you saw him?" Soundwave's large hand reached into the cell and pulled her out. He held her at eye level. His red optics burned into her eyes, and he held her uncomfortably tight.

"Blackfire's last known location south of area designation: Black Hills." Alex trembled.

"Yeah yeah, he's still there, the Black Hills are big you know…..he could be anywhere, better keep looking….." She gulped and stared at his expressionless face.

"Answer satisfactory. Organic allowed to continue functioning." Soundwave tossed Alex back in her cell. Suddenly the entire room started to shake.

"Soundwave to Scavenger. Explanation required for raising tower."

"Scavenger here. An autobot was spotted. Laserbeak went to investigate."

"Acceptable. Soundwave out." He turned and left the room, leaving Alex alone again.

She didn't know how long she had been asleep when she woke to the sound of voices. Or, to be specific, _a_ voice.

"Do not scream. I am here to help you. This room is under video surveillance, you must act as if I was not here." Alex's eyes widened and she kept very still from shock. She slowly looked around the brig. There was nothing there. She swallowed and her hands trembled. She'd gone crazy, a disembodied voice was talking to her.

"Oh crap. I'm crazy."

"You are not crazy. I am an autobot assigned to rescue you."

"Good luck." Alex stated, eyes unfocused. She heard once that when prisoners started hearing voices and their minds started unraveling that they were supposed to ignore them. But really, maybe her imagination would come up with something interesting. She heard a thump to her left and looked outside her cell. That must be where the voice was. What was an autobot she wondered? Well whatever it was said mysterious being was going to rescue her. "You aren't really here you know. I'm going crazy and you are how I am trying to stay sane." Mirage paused in his analysis of her cell. The girl was delusional. This was going to be more difficult than he thought.

"You must remain quiet, I am going to disable the surveillance system and break you out of here." Alex blinked, her green eyes red from crying and having her contacts in too long. She looked unknowingly right at him, and he stared, startled. Could she see him? But instead she looked down at her knees and smiled slightly.

"Okay mysterious voice, whatever you say. If a disembodied voice that I imagined saved me, I would be very impressed. Then again, I have always had an overactive imagination." She sniffled and sneezed.

Rumble was monitoring all the video screens for signs of autobot activity. He pushed a button and all the rooms of the base popped up. He lazily scanned through them, watching Ravage and the constructicons in their separate quarters and the refueling station. He pressed another button and an image of the brig popped up. He stared at the fleshling in her cell, and frowned. Her mouthpiece was moving, what was she doing? Did squishies talk to themselves? Wait, the screen just went fuzzy for a moment. Nothing ever went wrong with Soundwave's equipment.

"Rumble to Ravage, meet me in the brig. Something's going on in there."

"So, you have more voices as friends? Will they come too?" Alex had long since gave up trying to ignore the voice, she might as well talk back, she had nothing else to do.

"Um, yes, other autobots are coming, they are waiting for us outside. Your friend would be here too, but Optimus rightfully confined her to the base." Alex frowned. Her friend?

"What friend? I don't know any other disembodied voices." Mirage paused by the cameras.

"Not a voice, your friend, the other femme, the short loud one." Alex blinked, there was only one person who fit that description.

"Charlie? You know Charlie? How do you know her, wait, are you like, an invisible man or something? Like an invisibility cloak like Harry Potter? I could see that, but since Charlie didn't tell me she broke the code. I'll have to beat her up."

"I am not an invisible man. I am simply invisible at the moment."

"I wish I had a cupcake. I'm so hungry my stomach went numb." Mirage sighed, she was out of her mind with thirst and hunger, and would be of no help to him.

"Just keep quiet. You will be out of here momentarily."

"If you say so." Alex started twiddling her thumbs to pass time until her invisible friend saved her, when the door to the brig opened, and in walked Rumble, and a cat? Robots had cats?

"What the---squishy!" Rumble jumped forward and grabbed Alex by the neck, slamming her into the ground. She bit back a scream, looking up; she saw what looked like a giant robot panther growling above her. She stared at him in fear. "What's going on squishy? What happened to the surveillance camera? What did you do?"

"What do you mean? I'm locked in here I can't do anything!" Rumble pushed the now unlocked door, causing it to swing back and forth.

"Naughty, naughty squishy, trying to escape are we? Ravage, why don't you teach our squishy what happens when the big boss's prisoners try to escape, but you can't kill her, big boss needs her alive." Ravage growled and stalked toward her. She squealed and crawled backward, hitting the wall. Ravage advanced on her, then sprung, she screamed and leapt to the side, Ravage hitting the wall next to her. He growled and clawed at her, catching the hem of her pants. She clawed at the ground while he drug her backwards. He snarled and grabbed her head with his right paw, his claws scratching her forehead as he pulled her backwards.

"Stop it!" She choked as he cut off her air supply. He dove towards her neck with his jaw stretched wide.

"Ravage no! I said big boss needs her alive!" Rumble shot Ravage's ear, and he pulled back, howling. The bullet bounced in mid-air. They all stared in shock as something flickered once, twice then revealed a blue and white robot with what looked like a rocket launcher on his shoulder. Everyone froze, then chaos erupted.

"AUTOBOT!" Rumble and Ravage launched an attack on the white robot, who dodged their attack, and broke Alex out of her cell. He grabbed her and made a run for the door.

"Mirage to Optimus: My cover's been blown. I've got the organic and I'm on my way out."

"Affirmative, head for the ship we'll cover you. Optimus out." Mirage started running through the halls, holding Alex close to his chest. He turned a corner and skidded to a stop right in front of a green and purple robot with a red visor.

"I wouldn't go that way if I were you." Mirage skidded to a stop and readied his rocket launcher, taking a defensive position and holding Alex tightly to his chest. She was unmoving and silent in fear.

"Hook."

"Mirage." Hook shot forward suddenly, his larger form barreling toward them like a battering ram. Mirage fired, but Hook leapt to the side and kept coming. Mirage turned to the side and braced for impact. He was tackled to the ground, and Alex was thrown from his hand. She looked up from the ground to see Mirage untangle himself from Hook and attack him, knocking Hook offline, before she was thrown into the wall.

_She blinked blearily as her vision swam and she struggled to stay conscious. The sound of fighting met her ears as a dull roar. Something was poking her side, it was uncomfortable, so she shifted. Something was moving under her, trying to..pick her up. It finally succeeded. It felt like……a hand……_


	5. Recovery

A/N: Just a note, the transformers have different time units then us, and they are as follows:

Breem- eight minutes

Joor- six hours and thirty seven minutes

Orn- thirteen days

Vorn- eighty three years

Recovery

Charlie walked around the base the autobots had just returned with Alex and Ratchet immediately took her to the med bay. She was unconscious and he said it might be some time before she woke up, but was otherwise going to be okay. All Charlie had to do now was be patient something she was very bad at.

She sighed and slumped against the wall across from the med bay, and started banging her head against the wall.

"Stupid robots, stupid Alex being unconscious, stupid me, stupid waiting game, stupid having to be patient, stupid, stupid, stupid." She banged her head harder against the wall. "Ow. Stupid head injury." The door across from her slid open, she instantly perked up and looked expectantly at Ratchet.

"She's asleep." She opened her mouth to say something. "And no you can't go see her." She deflated slightly, how did he know her so well already? "And stop banging your head on my wall, I refuse to treat injuries due to foolishness." Charlie stood up and brushed the invisible dust off her clothes.

"Fine, you win." She started walking away when her stomach grumbled and Ratchet scanned her.

"When was the last time you refueled?"

"Huh? Well I filled up Nelly around last week, so I won't need to gas up for a bit." _If I ever find my car that is_, she thought to herself.

"No, when was the last time you ate?"

"Oh." She just shrugged in response she wasn't even hungry until he put the notion in her head, but now she realized she hadn't eaten since the morning before she met the autobots.

"Go eat something."

"But there's nothing in the kitchen." Ratchet sighed looked like he would have to find someone to take her in to town, he was about to contact Hound on his comm link, when he noticed Wheeljack rounding the corner consumed in a data pad. He reached out and grabbed him by the arm.

"Wha? Ratchet?" Wheeljack looked confusedly at Ratchet who just pointed to Charlie.

"Charlie needs to refuel, take her into town and make sure she gets something to eat." Wheeljack nodded before putting his data pad in sub space and transforming. Charlie just stared at him, he just made something vanish out of his hands, and had transformed in front of her, something she still wasn't used to. He opened his door and waited for her to get in, she paused. She'd never ridden with one of them before, well at least while she was awake, and didn't realize how very awkward it would be, not to mention this was the bot she was so rude to not long ago, although he seemed to forgive her.

"Go on Charlie its fine." She looked back up at Ratchet, had he just read her mind? He was really good at that. She nodded and climbed in, if Ratchet said it was fine then she would go along with it.

"Ready to go?" She heard Wheeljack's voice through the radio and gave a small nod in reply, he took off for town, and she vaguely wondered how he saw in vehicle mode.

Thirty Minutes Later…

"…and a strawberry shake…yeah that's it." Charlie was sitting in Wheeljack at the McDonalds drive-through hoping that if she happened to spill something in him, he wouldn't transform with her inside and kill her. "Wheeljack you have to pull ahead to the window so I can pay." He remained where he was.

"What is that? What's its function?" She realized he was talking about Ronald McDonald.

"That's Ronald McDonald. Umm, he's the mascot, that's just a plastic statue of him."

"That is not what humans are supposed to look like right? It looks like he has a disease called anemia." Charlie suppressed a laugh.

"No, he's a clown. They dress in bright colors and put on wigs and paint their faces to entertain people. Personally though, I don't like them." She paid the employee at the window and he handed her a shake and her food. "Thanks."

"Why is he here then?"

"To sell Happy Meals to children so that they can choke on small Chinese toys and have their arteries clogged by trans fats."

"Arteries?"

"Arteries they are…" She paused, how best to explain human physiology to a robot? "They're like small tubes inside the body that carry blood, a substance in organics that consist of red and white blood cells and plasma that carry oxygen and nutrients away from the heart."

"I see and what are trans fats?"

"They're another name for unsaturated fats, which are fats containing one or more double bonds between carbons. They have a longer shelf life and are used regularly in cooking, but they're not good for the body, they lower good cholesterol and raise bad cholesterol. This increases the risk of coronary heart disease, coronary is another word for heart, and…I'm rambling aren't I? I'm sorry, sometimes when I explain biology I just kind of keep going, and someone usually has to stop me."

"I don't mind, I find this fascinating! You humans are interesting creatures, I haven't had much of a chance to study organics, so I find this all very intriguing." Charlie sat back and sipped her milk shake. She didn't like how he said that.

"We're not just some bugs for you to examine you know, I'm just as sentient as you are."

"I didn't mean it like that. I just find this whole experience enthralling, science and engineering are my main functions." She forgave him, he seemed too sweet to actually think of her as a lower being anyway.

"S'okay, I like science too, chemistry is my minor in college." That sparked Wheeljack's interest and for the rest of the drive they discussed the chemical elements on their respective home worlds. When they got back Charlie had finished her food and was intent on finding out Alex's condition. She climbed out of Wheeljack and went looking for Ratchet. She paused and looked back at Wheeljack.

"Thanks for taking me to get dinner." She paused again. "And I'm sorry for insulting you the other day." Before he could say anything she walked away, trying to find the medic. She walked into the med bay and found said medic watching what looked like Grey's Anatomy.

"Is that how you know how to fix humans? By watching Grey's Anatomy?" Ratchet spun around startled.

"Charlie? I… um… I was… Mikaela had me watch it once and I found it very…well…"

"You got hooked on Grey's Anatomy didn't you?" She started snickering, it was just too funny. "Don't worry Ratchet I won't tell anyone I just wanted to know how Alex is doing." Alex stirred feebly. She could hear Charlie talking….about a tv show?

"Charlie, what are you doing? Shut up." Charlie and Ratchet leaned over her.

"She's okay." She rubbed her eyes and yawned a few times to clear her contacts, then started to sit up. She blinked as she felt no discomfort. Last she could remember, she had broken her ribs…….she gasped.

"Charlie, get down!" They were here, Charlie was here, they could come in any minute, she couldn't let them see Charlie, how did she even get here in the first place? She looked at Charlie's confused face, to the large, hulking, white and red robot….behind her…..

"Alex, are you ok----" But Alex had suddenly thrown herself at Charlie and sent them both tumbling to the floor. She was breathing hard and her eyes widened as she saw the robot's feet move. She pushed Charlie under her bed and followed, so they were both out of the robot's sight.

"Okay, I know this won't hold em, but we gotta distract him, then make a break for it, okay? I'll run out there, then you run for cover."

"Alex what the hell are you talking about?"

"Go!" Alex dashed behind Ratchet's feet, and ran for the door. Charlie just stared at her friend, whatever Ratchet had done to fix her worked really well.

"Wow Ratchet you rock at fixing people." Ratchet glared at Charlie.

"Go and help me find your friend before she hurts herself." Charlie shrugged and walked out of the medbay doors. When she exited she felt something grab her shoulder and yank her to the side.

"You got out. Did he see you?"

"Alex—"

"Shh. Okay we're good. He went the other way. We need to get out of here, before they kill us."

"Alex no one is going to kill us. These are the good guys." Alex stared at Charlie in shock, then grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

"They got to you didn't they? Did the purple one get to you yet? Did the purple one get to you!?"

"What purple one?" Shit, Alex cursed, Charlie was compromised. She'd have to get them both out of here before Rumble found them. Alex kept her back to the wall and began shuffling down the hall, trying to find the exit. Charlie just walked calmly beside her.

"You see Alex these guys are aliens from another planet. They kinda took up residency on earth like um half a year ago I think, cause their cube died, killing their bad guy, but its cool, cause aside from the bitchy ones they're pretty cool." Alex stared at Charlie in shock. She had gone insane! They did get to her. Who would believe aliens and cubes. They've messed with Charlie's mind!

"Charlie you need to listen to me. Alien robots are not your friends. The have lied to you for some reason, I don't know why, because they certainly didn't lie to me." Charlie stepped back. She thought Alex was just in shock when she woke up, but she wasn't snapping out of it.

"Alex it's okay, I've been here for…jeez already about two days and they've been really nice to me, these aren't the same robots that you were with." But Alex didn't let up.

"Charlie, I don't care what they told you, you can't trust them, they're huge and can squash us like bugs, we have no way to defend against them, we have to run." They continued to argue loudly, which drew out the other autobots. Jazz looked over at Ratchet nervously, who was keeping a sharp eye on Alex in case she relapsed. They were all watching them, everyone at the base except for Optimus Prime. They stood off to the side, not in the girl's immediate sight, for fear of disturbing Alex further.

Jazz felt bad. Charlie's friend was clearly very frightened of them. It wasn't hard to understand why. She had been kidnapped by decepticons, and according to Ratchet's report suffered heavy damage due to them.

"Ratchet…?"

"It's best not to interact with the humans right now. Charlie's friend is traumatized and rightfully so; we just have to hope Charlie can get her calmed down." Jazz nodded and looked sadly at the little human, as did Hound. He liked humans, he hoped they could be friends. It was then Optimus Prime entered the corridor. He had finally been distracted by the noise, and came from the control room to see what caused the commotion. Alex and Charlie both quieted and stared at Optimus in awe. He just had that effect on people. He looked at the two of them in the middle of everything, and guessed what happened.

"I see our guest has awoken. Hello little one, my name is Optimus Prime."

"Uhh, Soundwave, boss, we got company." Soundwave looked up from the control systems, trying to get his base back online. Mirage had done a number on his base before escaping; disabling any system he came across while escaping with the femme. He had been careless. Soundwave was never careless. This organic mudball had scrambled his circuits. But it wouldn't matter once he gained control of the decepticons, and destroyed this planet. Soundwave looked down at Rumble and motioned to the entrance of the control room, two transformers he didn't recognize were standing there. The first one was yellow and purple with a gun in his hand, the other was green with tank tracks on his upper arms.

"Unidentified decepticons, name your purpose." The yellow and purple one stepped forward.

"Name's Swindle, Brawl," He gestured to the other mech. "--and I heard the transmission calling the decepticons to this mud ball, sent out by the new decepticon leader, I take it that's you." Soundwave stared at the two new troops. He tried to get a read on them, but he had been damaged in the battle with the autobots, and was not functioning properly. He didn't know anything about these two and had never seen them before, he didn't know if they could be trusted but he needed more firepower. He would just have to watch them closely.

"Rumble escort decepticons Swindle and Brawl to personal quarters."

"When you were captured, Charlie was taken to our base mistakenly. When you called her and found you were a prisoner of Soundwave, we realized this was not a coincidence. So you must tell us, were either of you aware of any suspicious activities when you were together?" Alex and Charlie looked at each other from across the room. Alex was in the corner closest to the door, as far away as she could get while still being in the conversation. Charlie was being held by Jazz, who was leaning against the control panel next to Optimus. All the other autobots stood nearby, all of them continually glancing at Alex. She pretended not to notice.

"You mean like transforming cars and stuff? Nope." Optimus looked at Charlie.

"They went after both of you, which leads me to believe something happened while the two of you were together some where at the same time. Something had to have happened, whether you noticed it or not, and targeted both of you. But why?" He began pacing restlessly by the room, Alex tensing every time he came near her. Charlie frowned.

"Hey nothing happened to me!" Optimus gave her a steady look.

"If you hadn't met Hound when you did, you would have been next, I am sure of it. The decepticon energy signatures were strongest around your dwelling."

"Oh."

"It's not safe to for you two to return to your homes. The decepticons may come after you again." Charlie looked at Optimus.

"So…what does that mean we're staying with you, or do we have to get hotel rooms and go on the lam?"

"I believe it would be best if the two of you remained here, and when you leave the base to have an escort." Alex looked horrified, while Charlie pondered this.

"But we're in college and have jobs, we'll be missed." Optimus turned to the screen.

"I will get in touch with one of our human military contacts, and have all the arrangements made." Charlie looked at Alex worriedly.

"Okay, well, can we go get clothes and talk to our parents and stuff?"

"Yes, but it would be best if you did not tell them where you were staying." Charlie seemed okay with this arrangement. How often do you get to live with alien robots?

"That's cool."

"Easy for you to say Charlie, you live by yourself. Your family won't even notice. Mine will and I don't even know how I'm going to explain my recent absence to my parents."

"Oh don't worry I covered for you. You went off to join a circus, because you didn't want to go to school anymore. After realizing, that you couldn't make it as a clown you've returned home in disgrace."

"Wow thanks Charlie."

"No problem, any time." Alex just glared at her. She looked up at Optimus suspiciously.

"So you think we need to stay with you guys, the 'good robots' so that the bad ones can't get us? No matter where I go you damn robots just try and lock me up!" She stomped out of the room and went into the human quarters. Charlie looked at the autobots apologetically.

"I don't think she likes you guys very much. Don't worry I'll go talk to her." Charlie walked out the door and went to go find Alex. Hound looked around the control room, and asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

"Do you think she'll ever be able to trust us?" Optimus was the one that answered.

"Perhaps in time. She has been through a lot in the past few days, and it will take quite some time to gain her trust. All we can do is wait and make sure nothing like that ever happens to her or any other human again."

Charlie walked into the human quarters and found Alex sitting on the couch flipping through the channels, and complaining about damn robots not having cable. She went over and sat by her.

"S'up?" Alex ignored her and settled on watching a daytime talk show. "They're not that bad you know. Hound's really sweet, and Jazz has really good taste in music." Alex got mad.

"Oh so that's what you've been doing? Hanging around robots and listening to music with your damn freak friends! While I was being beaten and tortured by a purple creep!! WELL THAT'S JUST GREAT I'M SO GLAD YOU'VE HAD A GOOD TIME WITH THE TRASH COMPACTORS!"

"DON'T YOU BLAME ME! I'm sorry that happened to you, but what do you want me to do about it?! I'd trade places with you if I could! But I can't! These guys saved you! They risked their necks! Mirage is heavily damaged from rescuing you! They didn't have to you know! They could have left you to die, but they didn't, because they believe all life is important! THE ONLY REASON I KNOW ABOUT HOUND AND JAZZ IS BECAUSE THEY WERE TRYING TO DISTRACT ME BECAUSE I WAS WORRIED SICK ABOUT YOU! SO NOW WHAT? I know you don't trust them, but they're all we've got. I don't like being babysat by them all that much either." Alex and Charlie stood glaring at each other. Alex finally sat on the couch and started watching tv again.

"They better fucking get cable." Charlie sighed and went to the kitchen area. She pulled out a bag of cookies, and went to sit by Alex.

"Cookie?" She offered. Alex grabbed the bag from her, and they both settled down and watched talk shows.

"It's been a few hours, do you think she has calmed down enough to let me examine her? I'm afraid she will relapse and re-injure herself." Optimus turned to Ratchet and sighed.

"You can try. If her friend is with her, she might be more likely to cooperate." Ratchet nodded and headed to the med bay to make sure he had the necessary human medical supplies. At the same time, Alex and Charlie had started arguing again.

"You need to go see Ratchet, he can give you some pain meds, I'll go with you, it'll be fine." But Alex shook her head violently. Charlie sighed.

"Okay, we'll both go to the door, I'll go in and get some meds, and we can both walk back."

"Why can't I stay here?"

"No, they're your meds, you'll come with me." Alex sighed.

"Fine, is it close by?" Charlie sighed. Alex didn't want to see any of them. Looked like she was doing the talking.

"Yeah, come on." They went through the sliding doors into the huge corridor, and began walking to the med bay. Alex shivered and stayed close to the wall. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and was once again reminded she hadn't bathed in at least two days.

"Let's hurry, I want to take a bath."

"Kay" They walked to the med bay. Charlie left Alex at the door and went in to find Ratchet. She looked around, and spotted Mirage lying on one of the transformer sized beds, if you could call it that, it was more of a large metal table. He was in stasis, but Charlie tried not to make any noise in case he woke up. She couldn't find Ratchet, and went back out to find Alex.

"Couldn't find him. Let's go back, we can come back later."

"Fine."

"It's okay, you take a bath and we'll try back later. Jazz said Ratchet is almost always in the med bay." The two of them walked back their room, as Charlie started calling it, and Charlie watched the news while Alex started the bathwater.

"Hey Charlie, got any spare clothes?"

"No, but there's a dresser over here, hold on." They went over and started opening the drawers. In one there was just a pile of boxers, but they found one with skirts and tank tops.

"Hey cool, wonder how they got these?" Alex held up a pair of shorts and a gray tank top.

"Think they have any bras?" Charlie snickered and dug around some more.

"Hey I found one, aw it's only a sports bra." Alex shrugged.

"I'll take it. I hate to ask, but do you think they have spare underwear?"

"You mean the ones right here folded nicely next to the shorts?" Alex stared in amazement.

"Holy shit they have a full female wardrobe, do you think they have the internet?" Charlie deadpanned.

"They're alien robots, of course they have the internet. The question is whether they have human sized computers." They both hmmed. Alex shrugged, then winced. Still sore.

"I'm gonna go take my bath."

"Right-o. Oh Charlie Gibson you're so sexy." Charlie turned back to the tv, watching happily as Charlie Gibson explained everything that was happening in the world to her. She blinked, then sighed. She listened to the news curiously, wondering if she'd hear anything about the autobots, but there was nothing. Funny how these things interested her now. Just then there was a knock on the door. She got up and went out in the corridor to see Ratchet standing there.

"Hiya Ratch! What's up?"

"Good evening Charlie. Where is your friend? I need to check up on her, in order to make sure she hasn't aggravated any of her injuries."

"Oh she's taking a bath right now. I'll send her over when she's done."

"Thank you."

"Not a problem." Charlie beamed at Ratchet who looked down at her and smiled a bit, before leaving. Charlie sat back on the couch and continued watching tv until Alex came out of the bathroom.

"Hey, Ratchet came by, he wants you back in the med bay, to make check on you." Alex scoffed.

"What does a robot know about human anatomy?"

"Well seeing as he already fixed you up once before, I would say a fair amount. Come on I'll go too." Charlie dragged Alex back to the med bay.

"Ratchet we're here." He glanced over at the two of them and motioned them over. Alex moved very slowly toward Ratchet and the small bed next to him. Charlie grabbed her and moved her toward the bed. She sat down on the other side of Ratchet.

"And how have you been feeling? Any aches and pains?" He was trying to be nice, but wasn't making any affect on Alex. Charlie answered him.

"She was sore and her injuries were hurting." Ratchet hmmmed and pointed to a small cabinet next to the bed.

"Open that and take out the second container on the right." Charlie picked out a prescription bottle and read it.

"Codeine? Wow, you can keep this here?" Ratchet smiled.

"Just in case. But I would like to monitor you for the night, in case your injuries continue to aggravate you." Alex's eyes widened.

"You want me to stay in here?"

"Yes, but if it comforts you, I will soon be retiring to my recharge station. It will be almost empty." Alex looked slightly comforted. She didn't notice the robot on the table. Charlie did.

"Are you sure Alex, I could stay with you…somewhere.." There was only one bed in the med bay with monitoring devices next to it. Ratchet made to hook her up to the machines, but she flinched away from him. He sighed.

"Charlie, follow my instructions." She hooked Alex up to the machines carefully, then stood back.

"You look sick."

"Thanks." Ratchet turned and made a few adjustments, before straightening and bowing.

"That will be all my dears, I will now retire." He smiled kindly at them and walked into his recharge chambers, leaving them there. He actually kept the door opened a crack, he only pretended to leave for Alex's benefit.

"You're good right?" Alex nodded and pulled the covers up.

"Yeah I'm good. But come here right away in the morning." Charlie nodded.

"Kay. Oh, and they have coffee too." Charlie skipped out the sliding doors and Alex settled back against her pillow, her monitor beeping beside her. Ratchet smiled and let his door close. He really needed a good recharge.

"Well okay I'm just going to go to sleep. No big deal." Alex settled down again, and started looking around the room for the first time. She spotted something that sent chills down her spine. There was a robot lying on one of the metal tables. She hadn't noticed him before she was so focused on Ratchet. She stiffened, and leaned over to get a better look. He wasn't moving. She sighed, he must be asleep, or recharging, whatever they called it. She laid back down and closed her eyes.

_"I'm stuck in an alien robot base, I'm injured, and I'm in a big cold room. All in all, nothing has changed. Except now I have a roommate. I wish I had real pajamas, I hate sleeping in denim…." _

She sighed and opened her eyes. She couldn't sleep, she was still pumped from earlier. She looked over at her heart monitor and her chest squeezed. It beeped steadily and her eyes zeroed in on the numbers. Charlie seemed so at home here with these strange, dangerous machines. But she had seen what their kind was capable of. What would happen? Would the army do something? What could they even do at all? All they had were these 'autobots' to put their trust in. But as far as she could see, there was no difference. They looked the same, and even though they had tried at pleasantries, they treated her the same. A little human, like a pet that talked. There was no respect, no humanity. They weren't human after all. They seemed nice, but she was nothing to them. How could she even go home now, she felt so disconnected from everything. All that mattered was the beeping of her monitor, and the little numbers that measured her heartbeat. A weight settled in her chest, and she felt different somehow. Everything seemed clearer. She opened her eyes and sat up. She took careful hold of the I.V. in her arm and pulled it out and swung her feet over the bed. She walked purposefully to the door.

"_I wouldn't do that if I were you."_ Alex stopped dead in her tracks and went deathly still. She paled and turned around slowly. The mech on the table hadn't moved. Then what?

"Ratchet would probably go easy on you because you are organic, but he is very strict with his patients. He will be very displeased if you left." The voice was coming from the mech. So it was him, but he hadn't moved. She took a step back.

"What do you want?"

"Ratchet would kill me if I just let you walk out. Go recharge."

"I don't recharge. I sleep."

"Isn't it the same thing? Repairing and recovering your body from the day." Alex knew he was right, but damned if she was going to admit it out loud.

"What do you want?"

"I told you, I don't want to get murdered by the good doctor."

"Really?"

"Go recharge. You need it." Alex stepped closer and it finally dawned on her.

"You're the one from the woods. The one I ran into." He chuckled.

"Yes I am." And she gasped.

"And you were the one that…" But she couldn't say it.

"Yes." She stared with her mouth open. He had been the voice she heard. The one that tried to _save _her.

"Why did you do that?" She whispered. He lowered is voice with hers.

"I had to."

"Why?" She stood closer to the table then before, when had that happened? And could see the side of his face. It turned it's glowing blue eyes toward her, and she shivered involuntarily.

"_Because it's what we do."_


	6. A Little Push

A/N: Hello people! Here be the sixth installment of Aggressive Expansion. We have, like 800 hits, but only three reviews! Come on, we know you can do better than that! Reviews make our world go round so please drop us a line and tell us what you think!

A Little Push

"And then I tried making toast, but Hound smelled the smoke and panicked, which is why there is now a large hole where the door used to be, and why I'm now only allowed to eat cereal."

"Uh huh." Charlie noticed Alex staring blankly at the wall, lost in thought.

"Are you okay? Did your meds work?" Alex shook her head and took a sip of her coffee. They sat at the small round table in the kitchen, Charlie eating her cereal, and black marks covering the counter. Alex was thinking of the mech that saved her. She was so confused. She didn't trust them, yet she felt like she knew him a little, somehow. Charlie waved her hand in her face, startling her.

"I'm fine, stiff, but fine. I won't be one hundred percent for a while yet." Charlie nodded. She had entered the med bay at six that morning, so that Ratchet wouldn't surprise Alex and wake her up. Turns out, Ratchet had been waiting for her for just that reason. He stayed out of the way while Charlie roused Alex, who wasn't in as deep a sleep as she thought. She looked like she barely slept at all. The mech on the table was still in stasis. Ratchet had given her the once over and given her the go-ahead to return with Charlie. Which brought them to the kitchen. Both the girls were now wearing shorts and tank tops they had found in a dresser. Charlie looked around, whatever food that was in their room was ruined by her attempt to cook. All that was left was coffee and cereal.

"Let's go see if we can get our stuff. I need to feed my cat, and I need a toothbrush." Alex nodded and stood up. Charlie frowned.

"Did something happen in the med bay last night?"

"I met the robot who saved me."

"Mirage?"

"Is that his name?"

"Yeah it is. Was he mean to you?"

"No why would he be?" Charlie shook her head.

"No reason. Did you talk to him?"

"Not really." Charlie dropped the subject.

"Let's go get our stuff." The girls wandered over to the control room, looking for any of the autobots. They walked in and spotted Wheeljack, Jazz, Ironhide and Optimus.

"What's up bots?!" Alex stared at Charlie. How was she this comfortable around them?

"Good morning Charlie, Alex."

"Morning Optimus." Jazz looked over at Alex.

"Ratchet let you out already. He must really like you. The doc bot's usually real strict about patients leaving the med bay." Alex looked at the wall.

"Yeah." She mumbled. Charlie grinned up at the autobots.

"So Alex and I were wondering if we can go get our stuff? I'm missing mascara, and I've got a paper coming up, and I haven't been on the internet in a few days, I'm starting to go into withdrawal." They stared at her, bemused. But Optimus nodded seriously.

"She's right. They will be staying here for awhile, they will need supplies. As well as informing their families and explaining their absences." Jazz nodded and looked thoughtful.

"When do you want to do this thing? I'm open now." Charlie smiled.

"You mean you can take us? Cool!"

"Hound is patrolling, Wheeljack, I would like you to accompany them."

"Alright Optimus. Ready Jazz?"

"Yeah dog, c'mon ladies, let's roll!" He transformed into his alt mode, and Alex's eyes dilated with fear. Optimus noticed first, and motioned Jazz back. She opened her mouth as if to say or scream something, but closed it. She couldn't move. They could be anywhere, be anyone, be any car on the street or in the parking lot. Would she ever be free?

"Alex it's okay, they can change into cars and stuff to blend in. Alex?" But she was backing up against the wall. They could be anywhere. Anywhere……

"Alexia Vegeris, you have nothing to fear from us. You have my word that nothing will harm you again." Alex just stared at Optimus.

"Alex, c'mon, yeah it freaked the hell out of me the first time too, but they have leather interiors and kick butt sound systems. Alex focus, Alex." Charlie snapped her fingers in front of Alex. "They all have different energy signatures, a decepticon couldn't sneak up on any of these guys. You'll be fine."

"Charlie is right." Optimus knelt down in front of Alex. "What has happened to you young one, should never have happened to anyone. I'm am sorry your planet and everyone on it has been involved in our war, but I give you my word as autobot leader, that I will never allow anything like that to happen to you again, or any other human on this planet. No one should ever have to live in fear." Alex swallowed and looked at Optimus; even if she hated this entire situation, and didn't like any of these freak alien robots, she felt like she could trust him.

"Okay." Jazz pulled over and opened his door for Alex. She climbed in and stared at Charlie who was smiling happily, and telling Jazz to find a good radio station. Alex put her seat belt on and hoped for the best.

One Hour Later…

Charlie walked out of her house carrying several suitcases, her backpack and a computer bag, followed by Alex.

"Jeez Charlie did you get enough stuff?"

"Well I needed clothes and toiletries, then I needed to grab my books for school, then I thought reading text books is boring, so I had to grab my favorite books, then I was like, what if one of the fics I'm reading gets updated, and I had to grab my computer, then I thought—"

"Okay Charlie I don't really care."

"You should. I would listen to your story." Charlie stopped in front of Jazz. "You know Jazz I don't think I can fit all my stuff in you, and still have room for me and Alex." Charlie walked over to Wheeljack. "Hey Wheeljack do you mind storing my stuff for me?"

"Not at all." Wheeljack opened his door for Charlie to pack her things.

"Thanks Jack!" Charlie skipped over to Jazz and climbed in. "Time to get Alex's stuff!" Alex sighed. Charlie was having too much fun with this. They drove the few miles to Alex's house and she sighed in relief, there was no one home. She and Charlie went into her house and down into her basement to her room. She grabbed a suitcase and hurriedly packed all her clothes and necessities, before going into her bathroom and getting her toiletries. An engine was heard roaring up the driveway just as she finished. She paled and turned to Charlie, who grabbed one of her bags and leapt up the stairs. Alex took her suitcase and ran up the stairs, giving it to Charlie who went and stored it in Wheeljack. Her brother was home.

"Alex, what the heck? Whose cars are these?" Her brother strode over to her, blonde hair in his eyes and tracking mud from his cowboy boots. She swallowed.

"A friend's, we get to drive them awhile, you know, since they're nice and all. I'm going to be staying with them for awhile, me and Charlie are."

"What, for the weekend?"

"Umm, no longer than that, I don't know when I'll be back, so tell mom and dad I'm okay, I left them a note."

"You can't just leave, what the heck, aren't you going to go to class?"

"Umm, yeah, maybe, it's just a bit out of town, you know, gotta go with the alien robots, cause, you know, they're alien robots and god knows what they'll do if I don't---" She was rambling nervously, and Charlie steered her to the car and went and got into the driver's seat. Her brother was still yelling at her. Jazz's windows were tinted, so he couldn't see that Charlie wasn't driving. They pulled out of her driveway and drove quickly down the street. Alex looked stricken. "Oh crap."

"Heh, no sweat, there's no way he's going to believe you. If you had told me a week ago we'd be living with aliens, I would have you committed. Your family will probably just think college was too much and you snapped. Besides you sounded kind of crazy just now." Alex just glared at Charlie, but she did have a point. No one was ever going to believe them; still she didn't just like leaving her family like that with no warning what so ever.

"So I'm hungry. Jazz can you go to Sonic's so we can get some lunch? Oh we should probably get some groceries and other stuff, like extra towels and blankets, and a vacuum, I'm gonna need a vacuum, but let's get lunch first." Jazz laughed.

"You always like this lil' lady?" Alex spoke up.

"Yeah basically, never under any circumstances give her mountain dew." Charlie stuck her tongue out at Alex. Wheeljack's voice was heard through Jazz's radio.

"What's mountain dew?"

"A sugary earth drink. You decide to drive with your eyes closed one time, when you're a bit hyper and suddenly you're not allowed to drink pop anymore." Charlie sighed.

"You almost got us killed!"

"Yeah that was pretty dumb on my part."

"You think?" Charlie grinned. Alex was acting like herself again. Jazz pulled into Sonic's and both the girls ordered food while talking to Jazz and Wheeljack.

"So ladies, what do ya'll do for fun around her?"

"Well, I like softball, and Phantom of the Opera, and puppies, and up-finding, and crazy dance parties, Disney world, and my plan is to become a pirate."

"A pirate?"

"Yes! Oh food's here!" Charlie grabbed the food and paid the car hop.

"What about you Alex?" Alex mumbled something, while eating her sundae. Charlie decided to speak up for her.

"She likes animals, ice staking, unlike me Alex can carry a tune, so she plays guitar and piano, and-"

"That's enough Charlie."

"Why I bet Jazz wants to know more don't you Jazz?"

"Sure."

"Stop telling the robots about me."

"Oh don't mind her."

"Charlie shut up!"

"Then you tell Jazz about yourself."

"No."

"Oh, she's never been sociable with men from other planets." Charlie turned her attention back to Alex. "You know you should learn to communicate with the aliens."

"Shut up."

"You know Jazz I think she's intimidated by your rare sex appeal. I know I was taken aback by it at first." She batted her eyelashes at Jazz, and flirtatiously flipped her hair. Jazz revved his engine in return and they both started laughing. "You know Alex I could go ride with Wheeljack and give you and Jazz some alone time." She wriggled her eyebrows at Alex, daring her to say something.

Alex was annoyed, no she was more than annoyed she was bordering on downright pissed off. She was having the worst week of her life and Charlie was implying she had the hots for a robot. Charlie made another comment about robot protection, when she snapped.

"Oh shut up you idiot!" She ended up whacking Charlie upside the head and she banged her head against the window.

"Ow! Why do you always have to get violent? Damn." Alex glared but didn't apologize. Charlie scowled and muttered about how unrequited love made people grumpy. Alex smacked her again.

"I heard that!" Charlie cradled her head.

"God damn Alex, what the hell?" Alex was glaring at her. "That hurt."

"So?" Charlie glowered and hit Alex. "Hey!"

"Now we're even!" Alex hit her again.

"We're even when I say we're even." Charlie hit again, and a fight escalated from there, and ended up with the girls falling out of Jazz and fighting on the ground, with everyone in the Sonic's parking lot staring at them. Both the girls noticed at the same time.

"Eh uh, sorry!" They climbed back in Jazz and started eating again like nothing happened. They were silent for a second, when Wheeljack broke the silence.

"Does that happen often?"

"You'd be surprised. Oh good my milkshake didn't spill." Charlie started happily sipping her drink behaving as if the fight between her and Alex hadn't happened at all. Jazz and Wheeljack were stunned by what just happened.

"Oh, I see… fascinating! Is that a human friendship ritual?"

"Eh." Both girls shrugged.

"So girls have you informed everyone that will need to be informed of your relocation?"

Charlie kept on drinking her shake, Alex just explained that her brother would come up with something. Jazz kept on pressing the issue.

"What about you Charlie did you tell your family?"

"No need."

"But I thought humans were very close to their family won't yours be worried about you?" She shrugged and got up to throw her trash away.

"Was it something I said?"

"Nah Jazz, you just don't ask about Charlie's family that's all." Charlie climbed back in and shut the door.

"Well, do either of you have mates we must inform of your disappearance?" They both choked.

"Mates? Like boyfriends? No, jeez, don't call it that, say significant other or something."

"Why, what's wrong with saying that?"

"It implies a more intimate relationship, like..you know…" Jazz and Wheeljack were confused.

"A more, intimate relationship? I don't understand."

"Sex buddies!" Alex slapped her head, sometimes she just couldn't believe Charlie.

"Oh, you mean intercourse, I see." Both girls gaped at his words.

"What? How do you know about that, you're made of metal! I thought you reproduced by that all-spark, so won't that mean you can't have sex? You know I bet the whole reason for your war is because you guys can't have sex."

"The war started due to Megatron's greed."

"I bet he just needed to get laid."

"That isn't why the war was started, and for your information transformers can have intercourse."

"Really how?"

"You'll have to ask Ratchet."

"Ah. Okay I'll ask him when we get back." Jazz was grinning like mad, he had to make sure he saw that.

"You girls ready to go back?" They nodded.

"Yeah we're good." They started driving back to the base.

One Hour Later at the Base…

"Hand me the hammer." Charlie held up a hammer for Alex to grab. The girls had decided that until they could get another door, they would make do with hanging sheets around the Hound shaped hole. Alex was currently on a ladder trying to hammer some old sheets of Charlie's into the wall.

"You know we'll probably have to use duct tape, I don't think you'll be able to hammer anything into metal."

"Hush."

"We could try using sticky tack."

"Charlie shut up."

"Or glue I wonder if glue would work?" Just then Alex fell off the ladder, only to be caught by Wheeljack. She blinked as he held her up to his face, then shied away. He put her down carefully, and she retreated behind Charlie.

"Hey what's up?"

"I'm sorry to disturb you, but I was wondering if I could borrow something from you." Charlie put down the nails she was holding and straightened up.

"Sure, what do you need?" Wheeljack was ducking so that half of him could fit through the hole, but he didn't step into the room. The look Alex was giving him kept him outside.

"I know very little about earth technology, and in order to expand my knowledge, I was wondering if you had anything I might be able to examine." Charlie rubbed her chin, then snapped her fingers.

"Hold on a sec." She ran out of the room leaving him with Alex, who fidgeted nervously and refused to look at him. She was only really comfortable with any of them if they were in their alt forms. Talking cars were just easier for her to deal with than giant talking robots. Charlie skidded back in the room with her arms full of small electronic devices.

"Okay, this is an Ipod, you use it to play music, this is my GPS navigation system, I take it everywhere cause I get lost a lot, this is my cell phone, you saw this earlier, and this is my electric toothbrush." She put the tiny devices into Wheeljack's huge hand and he carefully grabbed them.

"Thank you. I will get them back to you shortly. I must say, I am very curious, you humans are such interesting creatures, I have been wondering what types of things you could create." He walked off, still mumbling to himself. Alex looked at Charlie.

"You just gave him your toothbrush."

"Yeah it's cool, I don't think he'll use it, besides, I gave him your Ipod."

"What?!"

"Yup."

"Why'd you do that?"

"Cause I don't know where mine is."

"Get it back!"

"He's not going to break it. I don't think..."

"Charlie go get my Ipod."

"Fine, fine, but after we're done fixing up the room. I still gotta clean the bathroom. I mean I really don't expect robots to clean, but for goodness sake have you seen the dust in there?"

"If he crushes my Ipod, I'll break your computer."

"You bitch you won't."

"I would if Tin-man breaks my Ipod."

"Kay, chill, I'll get your Ipod in a sec." Charlie climbed up the ladder and attempted to hang the sheets over the door.

After forty minutes and nineteen failed attempts at making a door, Charlie left Alex in their room, and went to find Wheeljack. Maybe he could just build them a new door? He was an engineer after all. She started out down the corridor, only to realize she didn't know where Wheeljack's room was. She wandered past the few doors she recognized and went into unexplored territory, when she heard what sounded like music.

"ABBA?" She started following the music wondering which autobot wanted a man after midnight. She stopped in front of a pair of doors where the music was the loudest. She sighed, most of the doors in the base weren't sensitive enough for human weight to register, so the doors would stay closed until an autobot came around. She sighed again and leaned against the door; it suddenly opened and Charlie tumbled inside the room.

"Ow."

"Charlie what are you doing here?" She gazed up at Wheeljack from her position on the floor.

"Oh you know just laying around. How ya doing Jack?"

"I am well, I was coming to return your toothbrush to you."

"Splendid!" She stood and brushed her jeans off. "I was coming to get Alex's Ipod back." She grinned up at him. "I didn't know you liked ABBA."

"Yes, I find their melodies quiet pleasant, I did not know humans had such a wide variety of music." Charlie nodded.

"Yeah, we have, like, thousands of genres. That one's from the pop genre." Wheeljack looked pensive but before he could answer something exploded behind him. Charlie blinked as he waved the smoke away. "Ummm, so, should we call someone?"

"No, it happens all the time." He looked slightly downcast and Charlie walked closer.

"Ummm, could I come up there?" He lifted her up to his workbench and she stepped carefully over a smoking piece of pipe. "What was it?" He sighed.

"A little experiment of mine. I was trying to convert some of your earth technology to run on Cybertronian energy but it seems they are incompatible." Charlie shrugged.

"You guys are light-years ahead of us." He nodded, looking slightly despondent.

"Ratchet said it wouldn't work." Charlie felt sorry for him. He was obviously very excited by everything on earth and he seemed very sensitive about his inventions.

"It's alright. It's a good idea, maybe you're just ahead of our time." He leaned toward her.

"You think it was a good idea?" She smiled.

"Sure. What else are you making?" Wheeljack beamed.

"Here you go lady, your Ipod's safe and sound." Alex sighed in relief.

"Good, hey I have a question for you." Charlie flopped onto the couch and turned on the tv.

"Okay, shoot."

"You told me this morning in the med bay that Mirage was watching my house, why?" Charlie blinked. That was a good question, they said they were watching her house because of a decepticon energy signal, but why were they watching Alex's house?

"I don't know, do you wanna go ask Optimus?" Alex frowned.

"Yeah, I want to make sure it's nothing I would have to inform the family about. I mean, if it's something serious, then they should leave and go somewhere safe too." Charlie nodded.

"Yeah. Well, let's go see if they're busy." The girls walked into the command center and found Optimus, Ironhide, and Jazz.

"Hi guys!" The autobots looked down at the girls.

"Hello Charlie, hello Alex. How are you two? Did you retrieve all your belongings?"

"Yup!"

"That's good."

"So… um, Alex and me have some questions we were wondering if you would answer." Optimus regarded them seriously.

"What are your questions?" Alex spoke up.

"Why were you watching my house to begin with? You said Charlie and I had different energy signatures at our houses. Why were you watching to begin with? What's with these decepticon guys? What are they after? And why were we involved? Why our houses? Why us?" Optimus sighed quietly. He knew once things settled down they would have questions.

"Your house also had traces of decepticon energy around it. And since your dwelling is more rural than your friends', I thought it might be near their base, which is why I had Mirage keep watch there."

"Oh. Are they?"

"No, the traces are fading, we now believe they were linked directly to you, after your capture." Alex swallowed and nodded. She took a tentative step toward Optimus and pointed to the control panel. He nodded in understanding and gently grabbed her and lifted her up so they could see each other better. Charlie began protesting and Ratchet lifted her by Alex.

"They said something weird, they said they captured me because I was a consort of Blackfire, I lied so they wouldn't kill me, but I have no idea what that means." Jazz looked at Optimus meaningfully, who in turn looked at Alex.

"Are you sure they said Blackfire?"

"Yeah. They said they were going to use me to get to him." Optimus sighed.

"This is bad news. Our info indicated Blackfire met his end years ago, but if he is on earth then our problems have just gotten worse." Jazz crossed his arms.

"Blackfire's bad news, that might mean it was his signal that was around her house yo."

"But no one's seen him in years, can we even track him?" Optimus shook his head.

"I do not know." Charlie waved her arms.

"Hey! What about those decepticons? I don't really get them either. You said they like to squash humans, why would they use us? Why not just, you know, step on us?" Then she looked at Alex. "And what do you mean they called you a consort? Do you mean like a prostitute?"

"That's what I thought!"

"Consort don't mean prostitute to us girls." Jazz looked at them. "They meant she was associated with him in some way, like maybe providing information or something like that." Charlie just looked at Alex.

"Are you sure you're not his prostitute? Jazz said they could have sex. Oh wait I don't even want to go there." Charlie then pointed up at Ratchet. "You need to explain that to me." Everyone just looked at Charlie. "And besides all that, why would these decepticons think Alex would work with them? How many of these guys are there? And what are they after? You said your all-spark was destroyed, so why are they still on Earth?"

"Like I said we detected traces of decepticon energy at both of your dwellings. Yours Charlie was the strongest, but unfortunately Alex was…an easier target. Alex's house also contained older traces of the same energy that was found around your home, Charlie." Charlie paled. They could turn into cars, and decepticon energy was at both of their houses. She was getting a sick feeling in her stomach, but it wasn't possible. She started listening to Optimus again. "…after Megatron was destroyed the decepticons were divided between two former high ranking officers of Megatron's, Starscream and Soundwave. I'm afraid to say I do not know why they have chosen to battle for the leadership of the decepticons on Earth."

"It's because you guys are here and you say you care about humans. They could hold the whole planet hostage if they wanted to." They looked at Alex in surprise. She had a point.

"Yes, unfortunately. But rest assured, we won't let that happen. They will not let us live here peacefully. They will always choose destruction, they would drain your planet's energy and destroy your entire species. It is why we fight, so that their rain of terror will finally come to an end." Optimus looked seriously down at the girls, who felt nervous. This was bigger than anything they had been involved in before, and it was starting to affect them.

"Hey Optimus, Bumblebee's beeping in." Jazz joked and pressed a button on the control panel and the screen above it came to life. The girls turned around and were met with the face of a yellow autobot with what looked like a high school boy sitting on his shoulder. Both were waving and whooping excitedly.

"Hi Optimus!"

"Hello Sam, Bumblebee. Do you have anything to report?"

"Not a lot of activity on our end Optimus. Barricade's seemed to have disappeared. But we'll keep our eyes open."

"Very good. Ah we have some new guests with us." Optimus waved the girls over to the view screen. "This is Alexia Vegeris, and Charlie Sheer." The girls stared at the screen.

"Hi." Sam peered curiously.

"Hey what brings you girls here huh? Buy any alien cars lately?" He and Bumblebee shared a laugh. "Sorry, I'm Sam, this is Bumblebee, my guardian."

"Guardian?" Charlie looked at Optimus curiously.

"Sam and Bumblebee live together in Nevada, where Bumblebee is disguised as his car. Bumblebee was appointed his guardian before Sam defeated Megatron and we had no base or safe haven we could keep him. Bumblebee continues to guard him while Sam goes to school." Sam grinned.

"Yup, me and 'Bee are like peas in a pod." They gave the girls identical grins and Charlie laughed.

"Will you guys come here too?"

"I don't know, Optimus?" Optimus smiled.

"You are welcome to visit. I'm sure you would like to get acquainted." Sam grinned at the girls and suddenly Charlie had a thought.

"Hey, is it your clothes that are here? Why do you wear ladies clothes?" Sam blinked and Bumblebee laughed.

"_Dude looks like a lady…."_

"Aww come on 'Bee, those are Mikaela's clothes, she's my girlfriend."

"Oh, where's she?"

"Huh, oh she's working, but hey, I'm sure she'll like to meet more girls in on the secret. Hey how'd you guys get involved anyway?" They looked at each other nervously. Optimus answered for them.

"Charlie had very strong decepticon energy signals surrounding her house, and Hound brought her to base as a precaution, Alex….was kidnapped by Soundwave." Sam and Bumblebee both gaped.

"What?! Are you serious? Are you okay?" Alex looked uncomfortable.

"Yeah, now." They took in her expression and looked seriously at Optimus.

"We believe they are targeting her as a mistaken consort of Blackfire, who we now believe to be alive. Mirage rescued her and they are now staying with us here on base until we can guarantee their safety." Sam whistled.

"Wow, well… nice to meet you two."

"It's nice to meet you too."

"Bumblebee continue monitoring for decepticon activity in Tranquility, and the surrounding areas."

"Will do Optimus. Bumblebee out." The screen went blank and there was a short silence broken by Ratchet.

"You look tired, you must recharge, I would like to check your wounds again in the morning." Alex blushed. Ratchet was very persistent.

"Yeah okay." Optimus lowered her back down to the floor followed by Charlie.

"Well, goodnight, I guess." The two girls exited the room and Ironhide turned to Optimus.

"You didn't tell them the truth." He sighed.

"I know."


	7. Revelations

A/N: Hey all, thanks to those of you who reviewed the last chapter, all two of you….come on people! If you read it, review it, please! We live off reviews, if we don't have any, we will DIE!!!!!! So please REVIEW!!!!!

Revelations

Two Weeks Later……

"I want to check Hot Topic, is that okay Jazz?" The autobot turned into the parking lot and sighed at the two girls. Boy, human femmes sure love to buy things…

"Yeah, it's cool. I'll be right here." They got out and strolled through the parking lot toward the large double doors. They'd become much more accustomed to living on base with the autobots, in fact, they were even starting to like it. No college, no work, and no nagging parents. Plus, they cruised around town in Jazz, who always volunteered to take them around. And let's face it, he was hot. Alex pulled a scrunchie out of her pocket and put her hair in a ponytail, moving her sunglasses onto her forehead as they went inside. She was particularly glad she was wearing her own clothes, denim shorts and a vintage Star Wars t-shirt. Charlie was fiddling with her cell phone, playing around with some of the new features that Wheeljack added. They could now call directly into the autobots channel, allowing them to contact any of them immediately. She took off her electric blue hoodie and tied it around her waist, her KISS t-shirt now visible.

"I wanted some new tank tops, and possibly Harry Potter stuff. Yeah." Alex shrugged and followed Charlie through the store, commenting on the stuff she picked out.

"Weren't you supposed to buy a DVD player for Wheeljack? So then he could hook it up to the big screen and do some other science stuff I wasn't paying attention to?"

"Oh yeah, let's go to Target." She picked out the cheapest one she could find and they headed back to Jazz, he must have been getting bored by now. As they walked back out the doors however, Charlie froze. Alex turned around once she realized she wasn't beside her.

"Did you forget something?" Charlie shook her head, looking off to the left.

"No, I'm just gonna go use the bathroom, here take my bags, I'll be there in a minute." Alex shrugged and grabbed Charlie's bags before walking over to Jazz, who was parked near the back. Charlie sighed and, making sure Alex wasn't watching, ran three rows over toward the idling black Honda civic. It had to be a coincidence it just had to be. The black Honda started driving away. Charlie ran after it, chasing it into a nearby empty parking lot in the back of the mall. She stopped and stared. It couldn't be a coincidence. This had to be Nelly. Charlie hesitantly took a shaky step towards her long lost car. Before her foot even hit the pavement, the civic did a 180 in front of her; the passenger door opened and a small shape fell out. Charlie watched as the car she was sure was hers drove away. She sighed and looked down to see what had fallen out of Nelly, it was her Ipod. She bent down and picked it up, any doubts she had about the car not being Nelly disappeared in an instant. She knew now that was her car, and for some reason Nelly brought Charlie her Ipod back. Charlie didn't know why, she didn't think she wanted to know. But she was sure of one thing, Nelly was a transformer.

Alex sighed for the hundredth time. "What the heck is taking Charlie so long? I'm bored! I swear if she got lost I'm going to be so pissed."

"You girls have been here a hundred times. How could she get lost?"

"Charlie couldn't find her way out of a paper bag. You have no idea how many times it's been one in the morning and I find Charlie walking around the base because she can't find our room."

"I didn't know that."

"I wasn't supposed to tell anyone because Charlie is afraid Ratchet or Wheeljack will try to attach some sort of guidance system to her, and it will end up blowing up."

"She's still paranoid about getting things from Wheeljack huh?"

"Can you blame her? He gives her two so called gifts and both blow up in her face, not to mention every time she goes to his lab something explodes. Charlie thinks Jack is out to get her."

"Not exactly." Alex could hear the smile in his voice, and she was about to ask what he meant when she saw Charlie walking up to them.

"Finally! Jeez Charlie what the hell took you?" Charlie sat down and put her seat belt on. Her Ipod was securely in her purse. Alex noticed Charlie looked really pale and she was shaking slightly. "What's wrong?"

"Um I got lost and had a run in with this really creepy guy."

"See Jazz I told you she could get lost in the mall!" Charlie nodded and went with it, for some reason she didn't want anyone to know what happened. Nelly had meant only her to see her, she knew it. And even though she knew she shouldn't, she trusted her. She'd had Nelly for years, they were like family. She joined Alex and Jazz's conversation about pizza and how good it was and tried to relax. Alex would notice for sure if she didn't calm down. They were just going past a McDonald's when they heard it. The light post they had just passed exploded, and Jazz swerved sharply to avoid the pieces. Alex screamed and ducked, and Charlie was thrown to the other side of the car, she damned herself internally for forgetting to put on her seatbelt.

"It's Thundercracker! Alex, alert Optimus!" Jazz slid to a stop and the girls grabbed their things and slid out of him and ran around behind a dumpster. Alex pulled out her cell phone and connected to Optimus, and frantically told him they were being attacked. But Charlie was more worried about Jazz, this Thundercracker guy was a lot bigger than him. Cars swerved around the two as Thundercracker laughed maniacally.

"So nice to see you again autobot."

"Too bad I can't say the same about you Thundercracker." He dodged and rolled as Thundercracker shot at him. Unfortunately, it came a little too close.

"AHHH CHARLIE!!!" His shot hit the concrete and blew their dumpster to the side, Alex getting caught and thrown, while Charlie screamed as one of the pieces landed on her leg. They both looked up to see Jazz get smashed to the ground by Thundercracker and Alex screamed again. He had the same purple symbol on him that Rumble did, he was one of _them._ She crawled over to where Charlie was, and tried to heave the twisted metal off her leg.

"It won't budge!"

"Keep trying, I can't feel it anymore, I don't want to lose a leg!" Alex gritted her teeth and ignored the blood running down her face from when she impacted. She braced herself and managed to lift it enough for Charlie to move her leg out from under it. She sighed in relief, but Alex choked. Her leg was bloody and very obviously broken. They needed help fast, Jazz was losing and none of the other autobots were in sight. She swallowed and looked down in surprise to see her shirt ripped, and a long cut crossing over her midsection. She blinked in surprise, she was lucky her fall hadn't broke anything, but she must have been cut when she freed herself from the rubble. They needed to get under some cover. Alex grabbed Charlie's arm and slung it over her shoulder and they started hobbling, trying to get out of the way of the fight.

"Did you get a hold of Optimus?"

"Yeah they're on the way, but I'm not sure how long Jazz is gonna hold on." They stumbled as Jazz hit the pavement near them, and Thundercracker looked over and grinned ferally.

"These little femmes are with you Jazz? Oh how fun." He aimed at them and the girls screamed, but Jazz threw himself over them at the last moment, taking the shot. He grunted in pain and Charlie gasped in pain as she landed on her bad leg. Fuck she thought they were screwed. Thundercracker was about to blast them again, but it wasn't Thundercracker Charlie was paying attention to. It was whatever was coming at him. At first she thought it was one of the autobots, but she knew that wasn't the case. Whatever it was it was coming from the sky and fast. Suddenly everything went white and Thundercracker turned in surprise before what looked like a glowing meteor fly straight toward him. Jazz covered them again as the ground shook, and just as they were rising they were surprised as another one hit the ground to the right of them. They stood shakily and as the dust cleared, Jazz gasped.

"Yo, damn man! We saved little ladies!" Though damaged, he scooped up Alex and Charlie in each of his hands and danced. They yelled and he stopped as one of the 'meteors' started moving.

"Jazz, what's going on? What are---" But Alex was cut off as a large shape appeared out of the dust, and strode toward them, recognizing Jazz. He nodded to a crashed vehicle nearby, a very unfortunate soul, as it was a bright yellow Lamborghini. The robot paused and scanned it, and the girls watched in awe as his appearance changed. Standing before them was a bright yellow mech taller than Jazz with what looked to Charlie like fines on the side of his head.

"Good to see you again Sunstreaker." Said mech waved his arm in front of him in a cocky gesture. Charlie was sure that if he had hair he would have flipped it.

"Of course it is. You're just lucky I came in time to save your aft Jazz." Charlie stared at the mech. He was really full of himself. Jazz just smiled, he seemed used to the mech's attitude.

"What are you doing on Earth here Sunny? The transmission Prime sent out originated in the southwest. That's where all new arrivals are supposed to report."

"We were heading to that sector when we received a distress call. We changed our course and came here, with just enough time to teach that decepti-goon a lesson. Too bad he took off before I could finish the job." Charlie was confused, there was only one of him why was he referring to himself as two people?

"We?" Jazz was about to explain what Sunstreaker meant when---

"BOO!"

"AAAHHH!!" Both girls screamed and jerked out of Jazz's hands. He caught them before they hit the ground. A red mech the same height as Sunstreaker came up behind them and started laughing at their expressions. He had a black helmet and resembled Sunstreaker. It was then they noticed the girls.

"Woah, hey Jazz, what's with the femmes huh?" He straightened up and the girls sat up straighter in his hands. The two mechs came and stood side by side as they regarded them. Charlie and Alex stared back, these mechs, while still large, somehow weren't as intimidating as the others. They seemed younger, somehow, especially since they seemed to like pulling pranks.

"Femmes? How can you tell, they look weird, what are they?" Sideswipe shook his head.

"Connect to their 'world wide web' its got info all about this planet." Sunstreaker cocked his head to the side, and about thirty seconds later he nodded.

"Oh I see, I guess they are femmes." Alex took offense to this.

"Yeah we're femmes, but here were called girls, ladies, women, whatever you want. What else did you think we were?" Jazz laughed.

"Guys, this is Charlie and Alex, our new charges." He held up each of them in turn, and the twins looked at them. They were funny looking creatures. "Charlie, Alex these are the resident autobot twins, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker." Jazz said pointing to the red and yellow mechs. Suddenly Sunstreaker spoke up.

"Betcha never seen anyone as beautiful as me before huh? I'll give you a minute to catch your breath."

"Yeah except for when I look in the mirror every day." Sunstreaker paused. This organic just insinuated she was more beautiful than he was. What a preposterous idea! But Sideswipe started laughing, as did Jazz.

"Hey I like you, wanna go out sometime?" Charlie slapped a hand to her face. Alex had already got into an ego contest with one, and got asked out by the other.

"Uhh, Sideswipe, I think you mean you want to hang out with her."

"Oh. Is that right?" Jazz nodded. Sunstreaker stood and pouted, when suddenly they all jumped as they heard sirens coming.

"Hey, we need to get back to base, Sideswipe, scan an alt form and I'll lead you there." He put the girls down and they looked up to see Sunstreaker and Sideswipe just staring down at them.

"Man they're short!"

"Guys, come on, the cops is coming, we gotta split." Sideswipe scanned the same form as Sunstreaker and became a red Lamborghini. Charlie suddenly ran behind a boulder and returned with two beaten up bags.

"I found our stuff!"

"Cool, I can't believe it's not crushed." They got into Jazz and he sped off, closely followed by the twins.

"Well, the DVD player box is squished…but I'm sure Wheeljack won't mind." Alex shifted and put on her seatbelt.

"So, those twins, they're brothers? How can autobots have brothers?"

"It happens when the all spark creates new life and the spark splits in two. It happens very rarely. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe are the last ones."

"Oh okay." Jazz started driving towards the base followed by Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. Half way there they were met by Ironhide, Optimus, and Mirage, who swerved and followed them. Optimus's voice came over Jazz's radio.

"I see you are alright. Alex, Charlie, how are you faring?" Charlie was gripping her leg again and Alex glanced at her.

"I've just got scrapes but Charlie's going to need Ratchet, her leg is pretty ripped up."

"Alright, I told him to expect us, he will be ready when we arrive."

"Good, I forgot about it in the mess, but it's really hurting, and I'm getting blood all over Jazz's upholstery."

"That's alright, I'll clean it out later."

"How?"

"You let me worry about that lil' lady." Charlie sighed and made a tourniquet out of her hoodie. She could at least try to keep as much blood off of Jazz as possible. The autobots drove twenty miles out of town and turned on an old gravel road. They drove for a few more miles before what looked like an old wooden entrance to a mine came into view. The door and front wall slid to the side and the autobots drove in, the old mine turning into the modern base the girl's knew. They drove down a corridor before coming into a large open space which lead to the doors the autobot's rooms were located, and the corridors that led to them. Alex helped Charlie out of Jazz and he transformed, taking her to Ratchet. The other autobots transformed and Optimus picked up Alex and they headed into the Control room, where he placed her on the control panel, so she could talk almost face to face with them.

"Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, it is good to see you on earth. Have you come in contact with any other autobots?"

"Not since we've received your transmission."

"Hm I see. Welcome to Earth. I will debrief you both after Ratchet runs a diagnostic on the two of you."

"Ol' Hatchet is here?"

"Yes he is and he's already made threats against you both if you try any pranks." They saluted him and Alex looked at them all standing there, taking up all the space. She felt tiny and vulnerable, Charlie always made her feel more comfortable around the large transformers, but Optimus was standing next to her, and if she trusted any one here, it was him.

"Not to interrupt, but who was that guy that attacked us?" All the autobots turned to look at her, and she shifted nervously.

"He was Thundercracker, one of Megatron's seekers, they are airborne fighters, who take particular pleasure in shooting down autobots. They are rarely seen without each other however, which bodes ill indeed."

"So, that means the other ones are here too?" Ironhide crossed his arms.

"We know Starscream's around here somewhere, it was just a matter of time before Thundercracker and Skywarp showed up. I'll betcha anything they're with him now, we should find them and take them out now." He pounded his fist into his other hand and looked at Optimus, who shook his head.

"No, not yet. We do not know their numbers or what they are planning, until we are sure---"But Ironhide cut him off.

"Yeah yeah, I know." He grumbled and leaned against the wall.

"Hey Optimus, Jazz said these chics are our charges, how'd you end up babysitting a couple of human femmes?"

"Oh no, we already had this talk, and they're not babysitting, Charlie and I are adults." She glared at Sideswipe, who rubbed his helmet.

"Really? That's as big as you're going to get?"

"Yes, and for your information I'm considered tall for a girl, if you want to look at a short one, look at Charlie."

"Really you're considered tall? It must be awful to be stuck in such an inferior form."

"Oh not at all. I pity you for being stuck as a tall neon yellow gaudy tin man."

"How dare you! For your information I am the most beautiful thing in the universe!" Alex snorted.

"Yeah, you're a thing alright." Sunstreaker and Alex began bickering over who belonged to the superior race. Optimus stepped in before their fight could escalate.

"We should head to the medical bay so Jazz can debrief us." He looked at Alex. "We can see how Charlie is doing as well." Optimus held his hand out to Alex and she climbed on. Optimus and the others headed off to the med bay.

"Can I have a purple cast? I can get a sharpie and everyone can sign it, unless you guys press too hard and my leg breaks again. That would suck. Ow! Dammit Ratchet that hurt!"

"If you held still like I had told you to do it wouldn't have hurt. Now stop moving around before I sedate you."

"You should do it girl. The doc ain't kidding when he says he'll knock you out." Jazz stated from his position on one of the many transformer sized medical tables.

"I'll be good."

"Excellent." Ratchet set Charlie's leg and regarded her. "Do you have any other injuries you haven't informed me of?"

"No Ratchet, besides you would have caught them when you did your creepy invasive scan thingy." Jazz chuckled from across the room. Ratchet frowned.

'You should be careful Jazz I haven't repaired you yet." Now it was Charlie's turn to laugh. The door to the med bay opened and in walked Wheeljack.

"Heya Jack what's cooking?"

"Hello Jazz I understand you and Charlie were injured by Thundercracker, are you alright?"

"I will be as soon as the doc fixes me up. But I take it you're more concerned over how Charlie's doing?" Wheeljack shuffled nervously and tried laughing awkwardly. If autobots could blush he would have been scarlet red.

"Um…well I was concerned about you too Jazz."

"I bet and I'm sure whatever is in your hand is for me too."

"Um…"

"Go on man." He walked over to Charlie's bed and held out his hands, in them sat a box. Charlie regarded it cautiously.

"Gee Jack, you shouldn't have. Ummm, what is it?" Wheeljack looked proud of himself.

"It's something I've been making for awhile, I just finished it." Ratchet was also staring in concern at the box.

"Wheeljack, why don't you leave that on that table there, and Charlie can open it when I'm done healing her." Wheeljack beamed.

"Alright." It was then Optimus entered, carrying Alex, followed by Ironhide, Mirage, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. Alex squirmed and Optimus set her down, and she ran in between Wheeljack's legs to Ratchet and Charlie.

"Did you fix her?" Ratchet was pointing an odd green beam at her leg, which was elevated above her. Ratchet paused.

"Not if I keep getting interrupt---"

"Hatchet!!" Two voices exclaimed in unison and Ratchet froze in horror. Oh Primus no they were here. Jazz wasn't lying. Ratchet turned around and took a defensive position.

"Whatever you two are thinking about don't you dare, or else I will dismantle you both for scrap."

"Aw Hatchet why do you have to be like that?"

"Maybe because the last time I saw you two you magnetized my tools to the ceiling." Charlie and Alex started giggling. These two were starting to sound really fun.

"See the femmes think it's funny."

"Charlie is heavily medicated and Alex is most likely going into shock."

"Hey!" Both the girls objected at the same time. Ratchet didn't pay any attention to them. He just kept on looking at the twins.

"Get out of my med bay now before I remove you myself."

"But Ratchet isn't it standard protocol to run a diagnostic on anyone whose been traveling in an exo-pod and have just entered a new planet?" Ratchet angrily sighed he knew they were right.

"I will run a diagnostic on you two after I have repaired Jazz and Charlie."

"Actually Ratchet I'm good. I just need some crutches and a sharpie so everyone can sign my cast." Ratchet shot her a look.

"Be quiet you don't know what state you're in." Jazz decided to get in the game as well.

"You know doc I'm feeling pretty good too. My automatic repair systems seem to be doing the trick."

"You will both stay here until I release you from the med bay."

"Well they both say they're stable so I guess you can give us a check up Hatchet."

"I agree Ratchet Charlie and Jazz seem to be doing very well. Why not take care of the twins right now?"

"You too Optimus?" Optimus just chuckled at his friend's obvious dismay. Ratchet looked like a puppy that had just been kicked, and he ushered Jazz off the medical table. Jazz stood and walked over to Optimus.

"Man, I don't know what Thundercracker was thinking man, but I can tell you he wasn't acting on no ones orders, it was way too disorganized. You know them seekers can get crazy on their own." Optimus nodded.

"I was wondering about that. But they will know our general location know, we must tighten security."

"Yeah, but I gotta say, that was a doozy, it's a miracle the femmes weren't killed man. I lost track of em' right away. This ain't gonna work if we're gonna protect them. I think they need someone with them all the time." Optimus regarded the two girls thoughtfully, who were looking at Jazz.

"You are right. They will need guardians like young Sam." He glanced over at Ratchet, who was hovering over his medical supplies defensively, and turned to look at the twins, who looked like they would pounce as soon as it was clear.

"Luckily I believe a solution is open to us." They all looked at him curiously as he bent down to Alex and Charlie's level.

"What Jazz says is true. Now that the seekers know we have taken on more charges you will now be in more danger. You both will need guardians to look after you." Charlie nodded.

"Yeah that makes sense. We were pretty much on our own, I don't think we did that bad though." Ratchet snorted but she ignored him. Optimus turned to Alex, who looked more apprehensive.

"So…what exactly would that entail?"

"Your guardian would be responsible for your safety at all times, watch over you, and escort you off base when you require it." Alex looked unsure, then nodded.

"Yeah I guess….." He rose back to his full height and regarded the twins. They were known trouble makers who loved to play around, this, at least would keep them busy and out of Ratchet's way, while ensuring the girls' were well looked after. He nodded to them.

"The two of you will serve here as Alex and Charlie's guardians." Sunstreaker immediately protested.

"We have to watch _them_???" He pointed at the girls in disgust. Alex curled her lip.

"I changed my mind, I'll chance going solo. The one with the gaudy paint job will be too busy staring at his ugly mug to take down any decepticons. He probably couldn't anyway."

"Excuse me fleshy." Alex winced at the name, that was one of the names Rumble called her. "I just single handedly took down one of the strongest decepticon seekers."

"You landed on him when you were in your pod thingy." Alex scoffed.

"And by doing so I saved your useless squishy self. You should be regarding me as a savoir, and my paint job is not gaudy!"

"Yes it is, and I don't consider arrogant yellow trash cans as saviors."

"Why you worthless, disgusting, inferior flesh creature, I ought to step on you!" Alex's eyes widened. She knew they were just the same as the decepticons. Optimus was about to reprimand Sunstreaker when someone else beat him to it.

"That's enough Sunstreaker. If you call her such names again I'll make sure to _accidently_ shoot that smug grin off your face in the target range." Mirage had become visible behind Sunstreaker, who jumped and moved to the side. He looked murderous, and he wasn't the only one surprised. Mirage had never shown such concern for one of the humans before. He was quiet and regarded Sunstreaker with such malevolence that he stepped behind Sideswipe. He intimidated him and Sunstreaker suddenly feared for his life, if there was anyone who creeped him out among the autobots, it was Mirage.

"Why are you defending this flesh—" Sunstreaker found himself at the end of one of Mirage's guns. "Why are you defending this girl?"

"She has been through enough due to our war. And you will not be threatening her anymore, or referring to her in any derogatory manner, understand?" Charlie didn't know what to think. Two weeks ago Mirage was willing to sacrifice Alex's life in order to get a good shot at Soundwave and now he was defending her and making threats in order to keep her safe? Something must have happened when the two of them were alone.

As for Alex, she stood still as a statue and was looking between the both of them completely expression-less. Sunstreaker was now just as bad as the decepticons in her mind, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out why Mirage was defending her. She had barely spoken to him, and at the time he had been badly injured.

"You will both stand down immediately!" Optimus's voice rang out authoritatively, and both autobots froze. Mirage reluctantly put down his guns and Sunstreaker stepped back. Optimus glared at the two of them.

"You are to respect the humans Sunstreaker. Rest assured this infraction will not go unpunished. Mirage, control your temper. We do not draw weapons upon each other. You two will come with me." Sunstreaker looked slightly defeated and walked toward the door. He had never known Optimus to look so angry, and he had only just gotten to earth. He didn't understand the autobots treatment of the humans. What had they done to be so high up in their books? But he didn't have time to think about it, as Optimus led him to his control room, and he stepped in after his brother. He had a feeling he was in more trouble than he thought.

Back in the med bay Ratchet had cleared his throat and started talking to Charlie loudly about her injuries and Ironhide glared at the door the twins exited from. He knew there was going to be trouble when they got here. But Mirage had turned to Alex and was staring at her, and she stared back. She wasn't sure what to do, should she thank him? But she didn't have time to open her mouth before he turned and strode out of the room. She shook her head in confusion and turned to Charlie, who was standing up and trying to use her crutches, she was failing.

"Wait, I only need these for a week?"

"Yes, I will give you treatments everyday, and you should be fine by next week, the cast is just a precaution so that you do not re-injure yourself." Charlie gaped.

"Wow Ratchet, you really are a great doctor!"

"I have developed a light treatment that speeds up your natural healing process. It worked quite successfully on Alex, and your injuries are not near so severe."

"But it didn't even take me a week to heal." Ratchet shook his head.

"You were unconscious for a long time after you were brought back here, and your bodies healing processes are stronger when you sleep. It may not have seemed like long to you, but I was able to work on you while you were asleep and your body's natural healing processes were sped up greatly because of it." Alex just nodded. Charlie finally got the hang of her crutches and hobbled over to Alex.

"I'm starving let's go get lunch."

"Kay." The girls exited the med bay and when they turned the corner they heard an explosion.

"What was that?! Are we under attack?"

"Wheeljack made me a get well gift. It probably just exploded."

"How come he keeps on giving you things that explode?"

"I don't know, but I told Ratchet and know he's going on the defensive. I think he's tired of taking care of the random scorches and burns I get."

"Ah." The girls made it to their room and cooked lunch. Their shopping bags were in their room, and after putting their things away they came to a decision.

"Do you know what we need?"

"What?"

"We need weapons." Charlie hmmed and nodded her head in agreement,

"You're right I don't like those so called guardians of ours and I don't want to see someone I actually like get hurt again because they were trying to protect us."

"Exactly. Besides there is no way in hell I'm ever going anywhere near Sunstreaker again. Let's go see Wheeljack and see if he'll make us weapons." Charlie jumped up.

"NO! Um I mean we should go see Ironhide instead cause you know he's the weapon specialist. He could get us weapons that's what he does."

"You just don't want to lose another eyebrow."

"I can't keep drawing them on!"

"Alright let's go find Ironhide." They walked out of their room and started heading toward Ironhide's quarters when they heard voices coming from control room. They both frowned. The door was left open; they never left the door open. They peered around the door into the room and noticed that all the autobots except for Hound was in the room, as he was still patrolling. Jazz's voice was heard and they watched in shock as a picture of Alex in the passenger seat of Nelly popped up on the screen. Shadow obscured Charlie from view in the driver's seat.

"So that signal came from _Blackfire?_ That's why Soundwave captured Alex, she's the only one shown with him in the image Laserbeak took."

"Yes, and we assume Charlie is in the driver's seat, though as you said, Soundwave did not see Charlie, which was why Alex was their primary target." Optimus folded his arms and stared contemplatively at the screen.

"So Soundwave has something against Blackfire, and thought that by capturing Alex, they would lure him out into the open." Optimus nodded.

"Yes, that seems to have been their plan." Wheeljack spoke up from the corner.

"Do they know?"

"No, I did not want them to worry unnecessarily. They are safe here and knowing will only cause them unrest." Alex and Charlie looked at each other. Charlie felt like a she had been stabbed in the stomach and now the autobots were twisting the knife. Nelly was a decepticon and the autobots were never going to tell them? She was the reason Alex had been put through that hell. And the autobots weren't going to let them know this!

"Why did you lie to us?" Charlie and Alex walked into the control room and the autobots looked down at them. Optimus lowered his hand so that the girls could climb on and he would better be able to talk to them. "Get your hand out of my face." Charlie kept her voice even, as she stared at the autobots, Alex was beside her standing still, not really looking at anything in the room. The autobots were looking at Optimus Prime, trying to figure out what to do next, they hadn't intended for the girls to find out about the real reason why they were there. "That's my car, the car I had for six years. I drove her to school every day, all my friends rode in her when we went to the mall. I had her for five years! You knew didn't you? This entire time you know what my car really was. You know I was starting to feel guilty I recognized the signs after I met you guys, but I didn't tell you. I guess we were all keeping secrets."

"Charlie I apologize."

"Charlie…"

"Save it I don't care. Did you feel guilty for lying to us? If you knew this entire time why didn't you stop Alex from being kidnapped? Why did you let me wallow in my guilt for weeks? Why did you lie? Why didn't you tell us what we had a right to know? I should have been the first person you told, not the last. I thought everything that happened was my fault, because I was divided, I didn't know where my loyalty lied. But, you knew this entire time, you could have saved me from my grief, saved Alex from all her suffering. Why didn't you? Why did you lie to us?"

The autobots didn't know what to say, Charlie was always the happiest and most upbeat of the two girls, they never stopped for a second to think about how she might react, or how she felt about the entire thing. They never would have guessed. She just always seemed so happy.

"**WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU BEEN KEEPING FROM US?!"**

"Your car is a decepticon named Blackfire. He is one of the most feared decepticons. He was assumed dead. We have recently learned that he has created a third faction of decepticons and is competing with Soundwave and Starscream for the leadership of the decepticons. Charlie laughed sarcastically.

"Oh so that's all huh." She was rubbing her forehead and looking for the life of her as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. But Alex was the one worrying them. She was looking at the ground utterly defeated, and shook her head.

"I thought you guys were different but I guess I was wrong. You're worse than the decepticons. At least they never lied to me." And she turned and walked out of the room. Charlie stood and glared at them.

"You know, I've been trying to get her to trust you guys the entire time we've been here, but I guess I should've been listening to her. You guys can't be trusted. Especially with information you should have informed us of immediately." She shook her head. "Screw this." And she followed Alex out of the room. Jazz jumped to follow them, but Optimus shook his head.

"Let them be Jazz. They've been betrayed, and we may never be able to gain their trust again."

"But Prime!"

"They need to have some time to themselves Jazz. We can't rush them right now. I should have told them." Ratchet put his hand on Optimus's shoulder.

"You did what _you_ thought was right Prime." Optimus just shook his head and looked at the door the girls exited.

"Yes, but I should've done what was right for _them_."


	8. Captured

A/N: Thank you for all the reviews, keep 'em coming!!!!!

Captured

"Come on girls please open the door." Hound was banging on the door to the girls' room. They had been in there since yesterday and had not come out for anyone. The only answer Hound received was the music the girls were listening too became louder. Hound sighed. Ratchet and Jazz came up behind him.

"Still not coming out?" Hound sighed again. He returned from patrol yesterday and Jazz explained everything that had happened, from Thundercracker's attack, to the arrival of the twins, to Sunstreaker's and Alex's fight and to the girls learning they had been lied to. He had been trying to get the girls to come out of their room. Jazz, Ratchet, and Wheeljack had all been trying to do the same thing to no avail.

"I don't think they'll be coming out anytime soon." Hound shook his head.

"I wish I had been here. Maybe I could've done something." Ratchet put his hand on his shoulder.

"I doubt it; they didn't want to speak to anyone. They feel betrayed, and I am especially worried about Alex. She didn't trust us before, and I can't imagine what she's feeling now. And Charlie was fitting in so well." He shook his head. But Hound looked outraged.

"You talk like they're not ever going to trust us!" Ratchet and Jazz shrugged.

"Charlie maybe. But Alex is looking like a lost cause." He shook his head.

"No, I refuse to believe that. We're their friends!" Jazz and Ratchet looked at each other.

"We'll see. I need to get back to work." Ratchet went back to the med bay, and Jazz waved.

"I got patrol Hound, tell me if they come out." Hound sighed.

"Right." He stayed there, trying to convince the girls to come out for another hour, before he had to leave. He looked at their door sadly and left. As soon as his thunderous footsteps were heard going in the other direction, the girl's turned down their music.

"Finally. I thought they were never going to leave us alone."

"I would feel bad about making them worry if I wasn't so f-ing pissed at them."

"Hm maybe. Are you done with that magazine?"

"Yeah." Alex sat down next to Charlie and picked up a magazine and started reading. Both girls were still extremely angry at the bots and were planning on staying as far away from them as possible. Suddenly Alex threw her magazine across the room.

"I'm sick of this shit!" Charlie looked over at her friend. "We gotta get the hell out of here. I'm not going to live with these trash cans anymore!" Charlie knew she was right. They couldn't stay here anymore.

"Yeah what's the point of staying here anymore? But they'll stop us if we try and leave."

"We'll have to sneak out." Charlie nodded.

"You're right, we're tiny, we could sneak out and go back home."

"Yeah, but we are really far out, how will we get to town?" Alex snapped her fingers.

"I got it, we'll walk till we've got cell phone service again, and I'll call my brother, he'll come and get us!" Charlie jumped up.

"_Yes! _But they know where we live; they'll probably come after us."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. We'll have to go when it gets dark, then they'll be recharging." Charlie nodded and adjusted her red t-shirt.

"Yeah, let's bring our backpacks. We'll have to leave some stuff." They both looked around.

"Yeah, let's pack the stuff we want, and put everything else in the cupboards." They began cleaning up and put their backpacks by the door. Charlie paused from picking up a pair of socks off the floor.

"Hey, Mirage can turn invisible, we might have trouble getting past him, he seems to be rather attached to you." Alex shrugged and pulled nervously on her shorts she was wearing with her green tank top.

"Yeah maybe, I don't know why he's like that; we've barely seen each other since I've been here." Charlie looked at her shrewdly.

"You sure you guys haven't had any alone time together?" Alex froze.

"And just what would that insinuate? The only time we've been alone is that night we were both in the med bay." Charlie stood up.

"Ah ha! You had a touching moment!" Alex ran a hand through her hair.

"Not really, no."

"You can't hide your touching moments from me Alex I can see them in your eyes!"

"Be quiet Charlie we didn't have a touching moment. I don't know why he defended me."

"Is it because he wants to have sex with you?"

"WHAT?! What the hell Charlie! Are you stupid? We couldn't even do that!"

"So you've thought about the mechanics of it then? I'm sure you could work through it."

"I'm not having sex with him!"

"Why not, he's your type." Charlie could barely speak she was laughing so hard.

"NO! Not happening shut your mouth! He doesn't think of me that way and I don't think of him that way!" Charlie opened her mouth to retort, but Alex cut her off.

"No. Now shut up and pack. I don't think it'll be too hard to get past them. They won't be expecting us to leave." Charlie nodded her head in agreement and went back to packing all the things she wanted to keep with her. She heard a knock on the door and looked up.

"Sounds like someone's trying to make us leave our room again." The knocking continued and the girls ignored it until they heard someone yelling at them.

"Girls! It's Sideswipe, Sunstreaker's here and he'd like to apologize for what he said yesterday. Isn't that right Sunny?" There was a pause and then the girls heard a loud thump.

"Yes that's right…. I'm…sorry."

"Yup he really is. So why don't you two come out and we can all get acquainted. You're our charges now. We should try to get along." Alex and Charlie didn't respond to Sideswipe's pleas and just continued packing.

"Hey you two!" Sunstreaker sounded mad. "We're trying to be nice and make up! So open your door!" Charlie and Alex just kept on ignoring them. Sunstreaker started yelling at them telling them to come out. By that time Alex walked over to their stereo and turned the music on as high as it would go. She didn't want to put up with that jerk right now, and she certainly didn't want him to be her guardian.

"HEY! YOU'RE STUCK WITH US SO COME OUT HERE AND DEAL!" Sideswipe was yelling over the music and Alex hissed and clapped her hands over her ears. She looked pleadingly over at Charlie, who looked like she was just about ready to start screaming. Those twins were really irritating. She went over and turned off the stereo and stomped over to the door and yanked it halfway open.

"WHAT???" They both jumped back in surprise, she stood in the doorway looking _pissed_. Sideswipe cleared his throat and peered around her to try and get a glimpse of Alex, who was ignoring the commotion and fixing the pillows on the couch.

"Look, we're really sorry. Optimus told us what happened, with that Sam kid killing Megatron and you guys….and we're sorry." Charlie glowered.

"So?" Sunstreaker gaped.

"So? So now you're supposed to come out and get over yourselves that's so!" Charlie crossed her arms.

"Well we don't need guardians, especially not you guys. So you can just clear out and tell everyone to leave us alone."

"Yes you do! It's our duty to protect you two now. So come out and let us protect you!"

"Okay no. First off you're an ass hole. Second off what would you need to protect us from in the base? It's not like some D-con is going to come in and grab us. So you can bugger off. We don't feel like dealing with you two. Well Sideswipe isn't so bad. But you!" She pointed at Sunstreaker. "Are a jerk!" She slammed the door on them and went to go sit on the couch. Her leg was hurting, but there was no way she was going to go to the med bay. She'll just take some advil.

"Did they go away?"

"Don't know don't care." The girls started watching TV, waiting for it to get dark so that they could leave.

Later that night….

"Got everything?"

"Yup let's get the hell out of here." Alex grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. Charlie picked up her crutches and made her way over to Alex. Alex looked out the door and gave the signal that it was safe for them to move. They zipped up their hoodies and began sneaking along the walls. There was no sign of anyone, but really, they'd hear them before they'd see them. Alex helped Charlie and she tried to keep her crutches as quiet as possible. They were extra careful crossing by the control room, as Optimus had a tendency to stay up late, but no one stopped them.

"Hey, the doors might be kind of loud, what if they hear?" Charlie winced as her crutch clanged on the ground. She whispered.

"Yeah but I don't think there's any other way out. We'll have to chance it." They got to the large door which was the front of the mine and frowned.

"How do we open it? Usually they just drove at it and it opened." Charlie hobbled toward the wall and felt around.

"Ah ha, Wheeljack always has a failsafe." She opened a little door and pushed the green button. The door opened and they both looked around wildly, convinced all the autobots we're going to come out of nowhere, but they didn't. They sighed in relief and headed outside. The door closed behind them and they breathed in the crisp air. The moon was bright and the skies were clear. There wasn't any wind, and they could smell the pine trees littering the area.

"Okay, do you have your cell phone?" Alex held it up.

"Yup, let's find some higher ground, come on." They turned to the left and walked through the trees, waving Alex's cell phone around and waiting for some bars to appear. They walked further away from the base, and kept checking Alex's cell phone. Suddenly they heard a large explosion. They looked in the direction they came from and saw black smoke coming from the base.

"Shit! What do you think that was?" Before Alex could answer the girls were distracted by the sound of laser fire. The girls looked at each other. They didn't know what they should do. Charlie couldn't move very quickly due to her leg but they couldn't stay were they were. It was getting difficult to see because of all the smoke in the air.

"Come on, we need to hide or something, it might be decepticons!" She grabbed Charlie and helped her hobble, but to their horror, the blasting seemed to get closer. Suddenly, an explosion hit a few trees away from them and they screamed. Smoke covered the area and they couldn't see a thing.

"Charlie are you alright?" Alex struggled to get up and her tank top got caught on a branch, ripping.

"It's okay, I fell on my good leg, what do we do?" She found her and helped her back up.

"I lost my crutches!" Charlie's jeans were ripped and they were panting.

"I'll help you, let's get out of here." They stumbled and kept going, the smoke got a bit clearer and they found themselves farther down the gravel road, unfortunately, they heard loud steps coming toward them. They looked in the direction of the noise and saw a large shape in the smoke. They heard it say something, but couldn't make out what it was saying because of the sound of the battle raging around the base. The shape started coming closer to them.

"Shit! Move it!" Alex and Charlie started hobbling away from the shape. It started following them, moving faster. Suddenly a laser blast came out of nowhere and knocked the shape down. The girls took their chance and hid behind a large boulder.

"What are we going to do? We can't get away from them!" The girls were starting to panic when they noticed head lights off in the distance.

"What's that?"

"Headlights. It's a semi! Come on it's gotta be Optimus!" Alex looked between Optimus and the two mechs fighting in the smoke. Between the two options she'd take Optimus.

"Okay let's go." The girls ran as well as they could over to the semi.

"Optimus! Optimus!" The semi came to a screeching stop in front of them and revved its engine. Its headlights were so bright they couldn't see anything else.

"I think he wants us to get in, come on!" Alex helped Charlie over to the passenger door and they both slid inside. The semi was covered in dirt, he must've been battling before he found them. They both sighed when they closed the door and the sounds of the battle disappeared.

"Thank goodness. We're sorry Optimus, we still don't forgive you, but thanks." The semi stayed quiet. Neither of them had ever traveled in Optimus before, but he usually would have answered them by now. They looked uncertainly at each other.

"Optimus?" But instead of hearing his voice, hysterical laughter roared from the radio and both girls looked at each other in horror. Alex grabbed the door handle, but it locked and the seatbelts suddenly buckled themselves on the girls. They frantically tried to get them off but they wouldn't budge.

"NO!!" They screamed as the semi gunned it and sped off, both of them banging on the windows.

----------------

"Jazz, damage report."

"Heavy damage was sustained in the armory, the security systems have been knocked off line and the entrance has been blown to the pit. The entire base has been damaged in some way and reports estimate it will take at least three orns to repair it all. Sideswipe, Hound, and Ironhide have all been wounded."

"How bad?"

"Minor." Optimus nodded. They had been caught off guard by this decepticon attack. A large blast had gone off in the front of the base and when he had gone to investigate he was met with enemy forces. The rest of the autobots had come to investigate and the ensuing battle ripped the base apart.

"I don't understand how they found our base Prime."

"Neither do I Jazz. Has Sunstreaker returned from securing the humans' safety?" When the battle broke out he had sent the twins to make sure Charlie and Alex were safe. He hadn't heard anything from either the twins or the girls. He was starting to feel uneasy.

"I'm right here." Optimus turned and faced Sunstreaker. He wasn't looking him in the optic.

"Well? Are the girls secure?" Mirage and Jazz looked at him expectantly. Sunstreaker looked to the side and mumbled something. Optimus frowned, he had a bad feeling.

"You'll have to speak up." Sunstreaker turned to him and they could see his optics dim.

"No." All three autobots rounded on him. Mirage hissed.

"What do you mean, no?" Sunstreaker straightened and looked Optimus in the eye.

"No, I was unable to secure the humans' safety sir." They all yelled.

"What do you mean?"

"They're not---" But Mirage had grabbed Sunstreaker and snarled.

"They're not what? Unharmed? Alive? Are they dead because of you Sunstreaker? They're not what?"

"THEY"RE NOT HERE ALRIGHT! I couldn't find them. When Sideswipe and I went to locate them they were gone." Jazz looked to the ground and Optimus stared. But Mirage was furious.

"You son of a glitch, you were given a simple assignment, to guard two defenseless femmes, you ought to be slagged for scrap!" He held Sunstreaker up by his neck and pointed his gun at him.

"NO, stop it, it wasn't his fault!" They turned and watched as Sideswipe ran over to them, there was a dent in his chestplate and some wires were sparking along his left arm. He grabbed Mirage's gun.

"It was my fault, I found them, but---" He trailed off and looked guiltily at the ground. Mirage lowered Sunstreaker and looked at Sideswipe.

"But _what_?" He turned to Optimus.

"They ran away from me, and before I could catch up to them I was attacked by Deadend and I lost them." He hung his head. "They were afraid of me." The autobots turned and looked at Optimus, who was looking at the sky.

"I have failed them then."

Charlie and Alex didn't know where they were going; they didn't know how long they had been in the decepticon they mistook for Optimus. It seemed like hours, they only knew that for the moment they were going to live. The decepticon they were in, whose name they found out was Motormaster, had contacted someone and stated he had the two femmes that were with the autobots and wanted to know if he could kill them. The voice over the radio stated that the girls were not to be harmed too severely, and that they would be used as hostages.

"It wasn't the same voice." Charlie looked over to Alex, she was whispering and had her eyes closed.

"What?"

"It wasn't the same voice as the one that captured me, none of them are." Charlie shook her head.

"They said there were three factions. You must have been with one, and now we're with a different one." Alex sighed.

"And as a hostage. _Again."_ Charlie looked at her with sympathy, and looked outside.

"Yeah." They both jumped when Motormaster lurched, then came to a stop. They looked out the windows; they were in a clearing off the gravel road they had just been on. Suddenly they began moving downward, they looked at the ground to see that it was lowering like an elevator. They blinked as the scenery changed and as soon as the 'elevator' stopped, Motormaster took off down a long corridor. They had built their base directly below the ground. He slid into a large control room, much larger than the one at the autobot base. Their seatbelts unbuckled and the doors opened. Neither of them moved.

"If you don't get out of me right now, I'll transform and just take what's left of you." They looked at each other and jumped out and backed away against the wall. In the light they could see the dust-covered semi was actually black. It transformed and in its place stood a large black decepticon.

"Oh crap we're really screwed aren't we?"

"Yup." Motormaster grabbed Alex and Charlie and carried them firmly in his hands. His grip wasn't enough to crush them, but it was making it harder to breathe.

"Where are you taking us?" Motormaster squeezed Charlie and she decided it was okay to panic at the moment. Motormaster took them into a large room with computers and monitors everywhere. Charlie looked at them and saw that whoever this was seemed to have every city in the area heavily monitored. Motormaster tossed them to the ground, and they landed with a loud thump. Charlie landed on her leg and let out a gasp of pain. She was starting to think that they should have just stayed at the base and stuck it out with the autobots.

Motormaster looked down at them and decided to have a little fun with them. He wondered how much pressure it would take to completely break one of them. He raised his foot and put it over Charlie intending to see how hard he had to step on her before she broke. He was about to see, when someone drove into the room. Charlie looked away from Motormaster's foot and stared.

"Alex, Alex look it's…"

"Nelly." Both girls finished at the same time. Motormaster paused and waited until the black Honda skidded to a stop….and transformed. The girls paled as Charlie's car they had been cruising around in for years stood up. Its red optics gleamed and they both shivered. It had two cannons on its shoulders and was tall, but not quite as tall as black semi in the room. But its presence was….disturbing. Motormaster grinned.

"Hey boss, wanna help me in a little experiment?" He turned back to Charlie and was about to step on her when he was suddenly struck with a large mace. He toppled to the ground and Alex rushed over and helped Charlie up. They both looked uneasily at the decepticon, who was staring at Motormaster.

"I said they were not to be harmed." The black semi stood up and shook his head.

"Hey that hurt! I was just having a little fun..." The mace disappeared and Charlie took a hesitant step forward.

"Nelly?" Alex stood next to her and the decepticon turned toward them.

"My name is Blackfire."


	9. Confrontations

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Merry Christmas Everyone!

Confrontations

"Soundwave to Barricade, report." Barricade turned on his sirens and raced through a stoplight.

"I've reached the area of designation."

"Proceed with surveillance of Blackfire's faction."

"Why isn't Laserbeak monitoring his activity?"

"Laserbeak is surveying area occupied by Starscream. Proceed with observing Blackfire."

Charlie and Alex had been corralled into the corner of Blackfire's control room. Bars of energy appeared around them, trapping them. Alex was silently brooding. She was pissed she was in the same situation yet again. Captured by alien robots and held hostage, okay so maybe being lied to by the autobots wasn't so bad after all. But damn she was mad.

Charlie was just sitting staring at Blackfire. She had figured out that she-he was a transformer, and she had a feeling before the autobots told her that he was a decepticon. But to see him transformed and realize how dangerous he was, it was something else. She didn't know if she was afraid of him, but she was having some trouble grasping the fact that she had been driving him for the past five years. Not once did she-he allude to the face she-he was a transformer!

"You're a he." Charlie stated while staring at Blackfire. He paid her no attention, he was busy checking his surveillance videos on the control panel. He had sent Motormaster off a while ago, and had ignored them ever since.

"Why did you stay with my family, why didn't you just leave or something? I thought decepticons hated humans." Still no answer. She looked over at Alex, who was sitting Indian style and staring at the screens Blackfire was going through. She looked alright. Charlie shivered. It was really cold in here, Transformers really didn't believe in heaters. She shrugged her hoodie back on and motioned to Alex. She scooted toward her and Charlie opened her backpack. They looked up at Blackfire aka Nelly, to see he wasn't paying any attention to her. Charlie pulled out her compact, pointing at the energy bars. Alex shrugged. Why not? Charlie took her compact and tried deflecting the energy beams with her mirror. It worked on TV. It didn't work in real life. The beam broke her compact and burned her hand. She screamed and pulled her hand away as fast as she could. Blackfire looked at them.

"None of your tricks are going to work, girl." Charlie was cradling her burned hand and just stared at Blackfire. He was right. He knew her really well; he would anticipate anything she tried. She sighed and kept looking at him.

"Well it was worth a shot." Blackfire walked to where Alex and Charlie were. He turned off the energy beams, and crouched down to their level and grabbed their backpacks. There went plan B, so much for trying to text the autobots. He really did know all their tricks. He raised the energy bars again and went back to the computers. Realization dawned on Charlie. A screen came up of a room of the autobot base. Or at least a room of it, it had been their room, but was smashed up, the tv on the floor. Charlie stared curiously, what looked like a cord was attached to the 'camera', which was attached to an earbud…..

"That's why you gave me my Ipod back! So you could find the autobot base! My Ipod had a tracking device in it didn't it? You've been monitoring the city, the whole area, so you knew we were with the autobots. You knew that I wouldn't tell anyone if you gave me my Ipod, or that I saw you. You used me in order to attack them!"

"Does that depress you girl?"

"No. Not really." No one said anything after that. Blackfire went back to the computers and Charlie sat down next to Alex. She looked at her hand, maybe Ratchet could fix it. Alex reached in her pocket and pulled out a tube of chapstick. She took Charlie's hand and rubbed the chapstick over the burn. Surprisingly, it helped.

"How'd you know that would work?" Alex shrugged.

"It works on papercuts." Blackfire glanced over at them, then pushed a button. The video of the different areas he had under surveillance began to flash randomly on the screen, scrolling from one to the next. He headed toward the door and Charlie stood up.

"Hey! Where are you going?" He paused, then exited the room. A few seconds he returned, followed by an enormous purple and tan decepticon with a red visor over his optics. He turned and stared at them as they entered the control room.

"I am leaving to survey the area; you will watch the humans until my return." The unfamiliar decepticon snorted and crossed his arms.

"They're imprisoned and just a couple of organics, what do you think they're going to do, fly out?"

"Do not underestimate them. I will be back in about a joor." Blackfire walked toward the door and the girls watched in trepidation. "Oh and Blitzwing, they are not to be harmed." He left and the girls looked nervously at Blitzwing, what if he didn't listen? Alex was staring him down, glaring, waiting for him to move.

"Keep that up human and your face will get stuck like that." Alex snickered, he sounded like her mom.

"How do you know that?"

"It was on your organic world wide web. So you better stop it or your face will stick like that."

"Oh okay. How's this?" Alex stuck her tongue out at Blitzwing. He blinked. It only took him a second on their internet for him to realize she was mocking him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you girl, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry." At that, even Charlie snorted. He growled.

"You're quoting the Hulk! That movie sucked!" Blitzwing stalked toward them and stopped at their cell.

"Shut up! No one makes fun of Blitzwing!"

"That's right Alex you won't like him when he's angry."

"You're right he might Hulk-smash me." The girls started laughing at that, making Blitzwing angrier.

"Pathetic organic femmes, I will teach you!" He lowered the energy beams and started stalking towards them. The door to the command center opened and another decepticon entered. He was mostly grey with some purple on his sides; he stood the same height as Blitzwing.

"What are you doing you fool? Blackfire said not to harm them."

"Why does he care? Why even keep them alive?"

"One of them was a hostage of Soundwave. That means she has something he wanted, if Soundwave wanted it, so do we."

"Can't we kill the other one Astrotrain?"

"If you want to anger Blackfire, be my guest." Blitzwing pouted for a minute before turning on the beams again. For some reason Alex thought he looked cute just then. She shook her head. It must be the lack of food that was causing her to think that way. Imagine one of these guys cute, well then again, she did think Freddy Krueger was cute….in a really weird way….

"Hey Alex, nice one." She gave Charlie a thumbs up.

"Thanks. These guys don't scare me, they're all brawn, no brain." Charlie nodded. The only one here that had really scared her was Blackfire. If she didn't think these guys were scary, she could only imagine how terrifying being Soundwave's prisoner was. Astrotrain soon left and Blitzwing leaned against the wall, unconcerned.

"How's your leg?" Charlie shrugged.

"Okay I guess. Though I could do with some advil." Alex nodded.

"I'm starting to get tired."

"Yeah, me too." They glanced over at the hulking decepticon. He wasn't looking at them. Alex shrugged.

"Does it matter?" Charlie shook her head. They took off their hoodies and made makeshift pillows. They lay down and Blitzwing glanced over at them. They began whispering.

"If we want to get out of here, we should sleep, then maybe try and trick this guy before Nel- I mean Blackfire gets back." Charlie whispered back, turning away toward the wall so Blitzwing couldn't see their mouths moving.

"What about the autobots?" Alex snorted.

"We can't bank on that. Besides, we were pretty nasty to them, maybe they don't care." She shushed Charlie, who began protesting. "Okay fine, they wouldn't do that. But they still probably don't know where we are. They might not get here in time, I say we try to get out of here ourselves." Charlie nodded.

"Yeah, this is not exactly comfortable." She yawned and saw that Alex was already dozing off. Well, just a little nap……

-----------

Barricade was surveying the area where Soundwave located Blackfire's base. He hadn't discovered anything of interest. He started edging closer to where the entrance was located. He heard the sound of jet engines and looked up to see two seekers, Dirge and Ramjet flying overhead. He spotted them at the same time they spotted him. The seekers nose dived towards Barricade and started firing. Barricade rolled out of the way and started firing back at them. The seekers barrel rolled away and transformed, staying in the air and pinning Barricade down. Suddenly a dark grey Ferrari appeared and slammed into Ramjet. The Ferrari and the jet tumbled down and crashed into the ground. The Ferrari transformed into a mech with red arms, a light grey chaise and dark grey legs with a red face and black helmet. Wildrider had showed his face.

"Ha ha! Intruders! Time to play!" Wildrider leapt at Dirge and hung on as he stumbled around, trying to dislodge him. Barricade took his chance and ran for it, but tripped when Ramjet shot the ground next to him. Unfortunately he touched upon a fuel pipe that went through out the underground base. Barricade rolled to the side, and a huge explosion erupted, blowing the ceiling off Blackfire's base. It followed the fuel line and reached it's zenith a few hundred meters to the side. The blast sent all the decepticons flying.

"What the slag was that?" Blitzwing called out to Astrotrain. The base had gone dark, the power must have been blown.

"Intruders!" Blitzwing ran out with Astrotrain to join the fight. Charlie and Alex looked at each other; they jolted awake when they heard the explosion. The energy beams were gone and all the lights were off. Blitzwing must have forgotten that they were there. Go forgetful decepticons! They got up and started heading towards the door Blitzwing left open. They scrambled out and started looking around, they saw a large hole in a wall. It looked like it had been blasted through. The girls would have to climb about ten feet but then they would be ground level. They climbed through the hole and were greeted with the sight of a battle, they saw Blitzwing, Blackfire, two jets and others they didn't recognize.

"Come on they're distracted." They ran off in the opposite direction of the battle, when they were about twenty feet away from the base another large explosion sounded and the shockwave sent Alex and Charlie flying. Alex got up and brushed the dirt and twigs off her. She looked around and couldn't find Charlie.

"Charlie!" Fuck, when she said that one of the robots looked in her direction. She took off running as fast as she could. The robot started following her but was distracted when he was shot from behind. The con turned and resumed fighting. Alex kept running as fast as she could. Dammit, where the hell was Charlie? She looked around frantically, but smoke was pluming through the woods. She cursed and coughed. She had to get on higher ground. She stumbled through the trees, trying to get away from the smoke, which was burning her throat and her eyes. She would never find Charlie now; she just prayed she got away. She found a tree with low-hanging branches and hoisted herself up, climbing up until she could breathe. She squinted and saw flame and more smoke coming from a ways away. How had she gotten that far from it? She peered through the trees and tried to spot Charlie, but to no avail.

"Damn, and no cell phone either." She sighed, then screamed as she felt something crawling on her arm. It was a spider. She flailed and tried to shake it off her, and let go of the tree. She screamed as she fell several meters to the ground, and grunted as she landed on her arm. It wasn't broken, but it hurt like hell. She moaned and rubbed her eyes. She sat up and leaned against the tree; her leg had a huge gash on it, she must have caught it on a branch. Her arm felt numb, and she had a coppery taste in her mouth; she had bitten her tongue.

"Charlie?" She called weakly, but no one answered her. She had left her broken-legged friend, and just fell out of a tree. And she had no idea where she was or how to contact the autobots. You would think someone would notice all the giant robots battling each other all the time, but the general populace remained blissfully unaware. She suddenly wished she was one of them; she always wanted to go on an adventure, but she always thought it would be more like Indiana Jones or something, no giant alien robots.

"Oh well, be careful what you wish for and all that." A low voice behind her made her freeze in fear.

"Oh I quite agree."

---------------

Charlie was pissed. She was lost, she couldn't walk very well and had to use a dead tree branch as a cane, she was coughing up a storm due to all the smoke in the area, she lost Alex and her car was plotting to take over the earth and lead a race of evil alien robots. Today sucked, it really, really did.

"I just had to return that video to Blockbuster. I just had to go and get drunk and get in a strange car. Oh no I couldn't have just kept the video and gotten a late fee, I could've just stayed sober, but no that's not how my life works. I had to return that damn video and have my car run away on me. Then I had to go and get drunk to mourn my loss." Charlie sighed. She had been walking for a while, but with her sense of direction and her bum leg she wasn't making much progress. Lucky for her she was an optimist with a great sense of humor. And a healthy respect for situational irony.

"You know, I would have left anyway. You just happened to be with me when I received the transmission from my troops." Charlie turned and stared at Nelly-Blackfire, she – he was Blackfire now; he was only thirty feet from her. How did she miss that?

"You could have been gentler when you tossed me on the street at least." It appeared to Charlie like Blackfire was chuckling. He transformed and opened his door.

"Get in."

"I don't want to be a hostage again."

"Girl, get in before I decide to keep you and you really will be a hostage again. Now get in." Charlie walked over to Blackfire and got in. She put her seat belt on and hoped for the best. It sounded like he was going to help her.

"So does this mean you're taking me back to the autobots?" Blackfire didn't answer her, he just kept on driving. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For referring to you as a girl for five years."

"It was annoying; I was close to transforming and showing you how incorrect you really were." Charlie was quiet. Well she managed to piss off one of the most powerful beings she ever met without even knowing it, and she was still alive.

"Why didn't you kill me? You had five years, why stick around for that long? Why didn't you kill Alex and me tonight? Why am I still alive?"

"You ask too many questions, you always have. Be silent before I throw you out…again." Charlie shut up for about five minutes, until she worked up enough nerve.

"Why Blackfire?" Charlie felt him sigh.

"Why did you say you were not surprised that I used you?"

"You…you've always had this thing about you, like I knew you were tough, like you were almost…dangerous. Of course now I know you really are dangerous, but it was just something about you, like I felt it. It was in your personality, even if I didn't know you were a decepticon warrior trying to gain control over your entire race, I would expect you to use me to get what you wanted. I could just tell you would."

"Sometimes you're observant for being so oblivious to almost everything." Charlie let that comment slide. Maybe if she had been more observant she would've noticed her car was an alien robot.

"Why?" She wasn't asking about his pervious statement and Blackfire knew she wasn't going to drop it.

"…" Charlie crossed her arms, telling him she was waiting. Capturing the girls' hadn't been part of his plan. It had just happened, and now he was stuck with this one again, but he didn't want her killed. He didn't want either of them killed.

"…I've grown accustomed to your face." Charlie wasn't expecting that. She was expecting something, like 'you will serve more uses at a later date', 'or I will kill you in a way befitting the humiliation I have suffered at your hands'. But not he has grown accustomed to her face. No she didn't see that one coming at all.

"Thank you." He didn't say anything and she stayed quiet. Better not to ruin a good thing, he turned onto the highway and sped up, passing anyone in front of him. About twenty minutes later, he pulled off the road and stopped.

"Where are we?" He didn't answer her question.

"Look in the back." She turned and saw, to her surprise, her and Alex's backpacks in the backseat. She grabbed them and stared at the steering wheel.

"Umm, I thought you said you knew all our tricks."

"I do. Get out." Charlie obeyed and held onto the two backpacks tightly while her car transformed. He looked at her for a moment before turning away.

"You should be more careful in the future. I will not be so merciful the next time we meet." And he transformed. Before she could say anything he sped off down the road, his headlights disappearing around the corner. She looked around; she had no idea where she was, why would he leave her here? She sighed and began walking.

"Let go of me!" Blitzwing shook her and brought her up to his optics.

"No. You are our prisoner, and I am taking you back." He growled and she snarled.

"Back to what? There's nothing left!" He tightened his grip of her and she cried out; he was aggravating her old wounds.

"You were a prisoner of Soundwave, why?" She glared at him and didn't say anything.

"What good could a little organic femme do him? You must be hiding something." He opened his hand so she was sitting on his palm, and she put her hand on her head, it was pounding.

"I was his prisoner because he knew I knew Blackfire!" Blitzwing laughed.

"You don't know anything about him!"

"Yes I do, I've known him for years! He was camouflaged as my friend's car!" Blitzwing paused. He was? He had only told them he had been in hiding, not where he was.

"So, he was in hiding amongst the humans?" Alex crossed her arms.

"Yeah, I know him really well, and if he knew what you were doing, he'd be really mad!" Blitzwing looked confused.

"What would he want with a useless human like you?"

"He knows I'm smart, I'm a great chess player! I'm a strategist, and he'll be really mad if you hurt me." Blitzwing put her down.

"Well in that case why don't you work for Blitzwing? You will be my brilliant military strategist, and Blitzwing will be indestructible!" Alex stared, this guy was crazy. She had to get away.

"Well okay…wait quick look over there!" Alex pointed to the left and when Blitzwing looked she took off to the right.

"What?" Blitzwing looked at where Alex was trying to find what she pointed out. She was gone. He looked around and found her running away from him. He took a couple of steps and reached down and picked her up.

"You are a brilliant strategist! A brilliant escape!" He grabbed her again, but not as hard. Alex sighed.

"Ummm, yeah, that's me." Blitzwing gazed at her suspiciously.

"Hmmm, then who was that other human?" Alex blinked nervously.

"Uhhh, that was my friend, she's a….a hand when it comes to shooting! She's a great sniper!" Alex smiled convincingly. True, Charlie was good with a gun, but she was no sniper. She wondered how much bull she could feed this guy.

"Hmmm, I don't need any snipers, Blackfire can keep her…." He trailed off and Alex became uncomfortable under his stare.

"What, no more movie quotes?" He came out of his reverie.

"The first rule of fight club is that you do not talk about fight club." Alex burst out laughing.

"How does that make any sense right now?" He cocked his head.

"I don't know…" He trailed off. "But it seemed like it fit…" He frowned in concentration. Alex curbed her giggles. He was funny for a decepticon, but only as long as she appeared useful to him. She knew he would crush her without hesitation if he didn't think she had a use. She had to figure out a way to contact the autobots.

"Ummm, you know, we humans have certain needs…" He turned his attention back to her.

"Huh?"

"I have to use the bathroom, could you take me to a convenience store?" She waited until he accessed what she meant on the internet.

"Oh, there's one three miles from here, do you have to?" Alex nodded.

"Yeah."

"Fine, after that we will discuss battle plans!" Alex blinked.

"I thought that was more Blackfire's territory."

"Yes, but with you I don't need him anymore!" Alex paused and brushed her hair behind her ear.

"Ummm, I don't think he'd like that very much. Isn't there a rule for deserters or mutiny or something?" Blitzwing paused and turned his optics to her.

"Yeah, you're right, Blackfire's really strong….but I'm one of the most feared decepticons on Cybertron!" Alex blanched.

"Yeah, but he's got more troops, and he's really smart…" He rounded on her.

"What, are you saying I'm not smart?" Alex shook her head.

"No, no, heh, you're smart…" Blitzwing nodded pompously. "But, I mean, he's got surveillance and troops and---" But to her surprise, he nodded.

"Yeah, I don't want to fight him, that would be…foolish I will wait until I have the upper hand, with you as my strategist it will be only a matter of time!" Blitzwing started walking, carrying Alex as he went, but he wasn't looking where he was going and he walked off a cliff. He started falling as he slid down the side of a hill. He hit the bottom and Alex tumbled out of his hand, because he was holding onto her she hadn't been injured. She got up and started running away, and turned to see if Blitzwing was chasing her and noticed he wasn't. She saw why, he had debris caught in his joints and he had been damaged by the fall. She stopped and turned and faced him, if she ran she could make it to the gas station he told her about and contact the autobots. She wouldn't be in any more danger, but she just couldn't leave him to rot could she? He threatened her, grabbed her and tried hurting her, but he did that because she had made him angry. He was funny in an odd way, he knew movie quotes, and for some reason he really valued her opinion, her opinion in how best to conquer and destroy others, but her opinion none the less. Alex looked at Blitzwing again. Damn she couldn't do it. She couldn't just leave him. She sighed and walked back over to him.

"Hold still, I'm going to get the junk out of your joints." He held still and regarded her with an odd look on his face as she picked the rocks out of his wiring. She kept throwing her hair over her shoulders, and every time she did it caught the moonlight. Her eyes were narrowed in concentration, and he became aware she knew he was watching her. She purposely didn't look at him until she finished, then looked up at him. She had some dirt on her nose.

"Is that good?" He flexed and nodded, the rest of the dirt wouldn't be a problem, but she got rid of all the rocks.

"Yes." He stood up and regarded her, then reached down and lowered his hand to her like Optimus usually did. She felt a slight ache in her chest when she thought of him, he really did think he was helping them; he just went about it in the wrong way. She looked up at Blitzwing, and against her better judgment, stepped onto his hand. He closed it gently around her and started walking again.

"Now we will go to the convenience store." Blitzwing started walking again, this time watching where he went. Alex sighed, it really didn't look like she was getting out of this. Blitzwing took her to a convenience store and set her down five hundred feet from the store and told her to go in. Alex sighed as she went into the store, she thought about leaving him, but she realized that he would just smash the store and grab her again; she would just have to figure out another way to get away from him. She started walking around and grabbed some candy, chips and a bottle of water. She had five dollars in her pocket and she needed to get some food in her, she really didn't know when Blitzwing would take her back to a store. Alex shook her head, she was thinking like she was going to be with him for a long time. She bought her food and went back out into the woods to meet Blitzwing. He met her around the corner and looked curiously at what she was holding.

"What is that?" He lowered his hand and she stepped on. He began walking into the woods again, but not before a trucker got a glimpse of them. He started yelling about a tin man among the trees but they were enveloped by pine trees before she could hear anything else.

"It's fuel." He didn't say anything else and she opened her water and took a sip before starting on her candy. They walked for awhile and she finished all her food and looked up at him.

"Where are we going?" He didn't answer and she got a nervous expression on her face. Maybe he had decided to get rid of her after all?

"Don't concern yourself with that. Communications is still offline, I can not communicate with Blackfire, we will stay in the woods until we can get a hold of him.

"Who were those guys that attacked the base?" He looked down on her.

"A couple of slagging seekers and that damn hunter." Alex blinked.

"The..seekers? The ones with Starscream?" He nodded.

"Yeah. And Barricade, but that slagger's following Soundwave now." Alex paled.

"Soundwave?" She said in a quavering voice. She had only dealt with the guy twice, but even his name made her twitch in panic. He smirked.

"Yeah, Soundwave. That boring, creepy, monotone con. Don't know why he'd follow him, but he's a strange one." So Barricade was with Soundwave. Too bad she didn't know which one he was. Blitzwing stopped and sat down against a tree, Alex was surprised it didn't break.

"What are you doing?"

"Recharging. You do the same." Blitzwing's optics began dimming, and he held Alex in his hand tightly against his chest.

"Why?"

"The battle has expended my energy supplies. Now be quiet so that I can recharge." Alex didn't say anything. She tried getting out of his grasp, but it was no use. She closed her eyes and figured she might as well get some sleep, after all she was pretty exhausted. She woke up a few hours later when she was gently deposited on the ground. She cracked her eyes to see Blitzwing following Astrotrain out of the clearing. She kept her eyes closed and lay her head back down when he glanced back. She waited until their footsteps died away and jumped to her feet, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. A loud crash of thunder crashed over head and she cringed. Great. She got up and began walking back toward the convenience store. At least she thought she was.

"I could have sworn it was in this direction…." She mumbled, then sneezed. In the last couple hours she hadn't heard head or tails of Blitzwing, and it had started raining in torrents. She was soaked to the bone, her hair was stuck to her forehead, her mascara running, and her thin tank top stuck to her skin. She was freezing but her hoodie was in what remained of Blackfire's base. Her teeth were chattering, and she hadn't been able to find that damn convenience store. She looked to the east and saw a purple-pink tint on the horizon. Dawn was coming, she had been out here all night. She kept walking; she was bound to run into someone. She saw a clearing and headed towards it; she reached it and stumbled out onto a road. Oh thank goodness. Suddenly Alex froze, she saw headlights coming towards her fast and she didn't have time to get out of the way. Just before the vehicle was about to hit her it stopped.

"Alex?" Alex looked at the headlights, she was starting to get dizzy, it had been hours since she had eaten anything and she was sick, her vision was starting to get blurry.

"Optimus?" She blacked out.


	10. Meetings

Meetings

Charlie was walking along the road Blackfire dropped her off at, she hadn't run into anyone yet. She didn't really know what direction she was walking in, but she figured she'd run into a car or a town eventually. Charlie looked up and sighed, she was getting nowhere fast. Suddenly she saw something streak across the sky and crash into the earth. She'd seen something like that before, but when?

"Oh!" Charlie took off in the direction of the crash, it looked exactly the same as when the twins arrived, it must be an autobot. When she arrived at where the thing crashed she saw the remains of a parking lot, well at least she found some form of civilization, she looked around and saw something running in between the trees. It looked like a transformer, but it didn't have any armor or color. She looked around the crater again and noticed a white and grey Datsun 28OZ, she looked back and saw two Datsuns. Huh? She walked over to the two cars, they were exactly the same except that on the grill of one of them was an autobot insignia. She blinked. He must think she was a civilian, but honestly, who wouldn't notice another car appearing just like that?

"Ummm, I'm not that stupid you know, that was kind of obvious. So, what's your name?" No answer, but she thought she saw the car twitch a little. She hmmmed.

"Are you looking for Optimus Prime? I am too, but I was captured and let off here, and now I'm lost." As soon as she mentioned Optimus's name, the car transformed into a white and grey transformer with two guns on his shoulders and a red crescent above his head. He was around the same height as the twins, and leaned down toward her eagerly.

"You know Optimus? I know Optimus! I was supposed to follow the transmission farther west but my signal jammed and I landed here instead. My name's Bluestreak, what's yours?" He said this all very quickly and Charlie blinked. He sounded like Alex when she was excited.

"Umm, I'm Charlie, and I'm a human femme." She decided to add the last part in case he got curious, he seemed the type. He looked at her in awe.

"An organic! Wow, you're short, you know what? We should go find Optimus together! How do you know him? I'm a sharpshooter, one of the best in the autobots! Hey, how does a little organic like you know Optimus?"

"Uhh, it's kind of a long story, we should get to the base first." He nodded and stood up straight.

"Yeah, uh…" He looked at her sheepishly. "Do you know where it is?" Charlie looked at him wearily. He talked a lot and didn't know where he was, she wondered what would have happened if she hadn't happened upon him.

"Kind of. It's about twenty miles out of town off this gravel road in this old mine." Bluestreak gasped excitedly.

"I know where that is!" She looked at him unbelievably.

"You do?" He nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah, come on let's go!" He transformed and opened his door for her and Charlie crawled in.

"How do you know where it is?"

"I saw it on my way in!"

"Oh okay!"

--------------

Optimus was driving along the road heading back to the base, Alex sleeping fitfully inside of him. From accessing the internet, he could tell she was getting sick from being in the rain the night before, and he had noticed a long cut on her leg and some scrapes she must have got from the decepticons. There was no sign of Charlie, but he couldn't express his relief that the girl was alive. Ratchet would have a fit when he saw what state she was in, but she was still functioning, and that was more than any of them could ask for. She had passed out almost right away after she crawled inside him, and he had turned on the heat when he noticed she was shivering.

"Optimus to Jazz, do you copy?" But he didn't receive an answer. He had come up this way after sensing a disturbance, and something was jamming his signals. Blackfire's base was around here, but his first priority was getting Alex to Ratchet. He drove through the hills and waited for his communications to come back online. He hoped Hound or Jazz had found Charlie. Suddenly, a voice boomed over his radio.

"Hey Optimus, have you found them yet?" Sam was yelling into the radio, he hadn't quite gotten the hang of it yet. Bumblebee and he had arrived at the base that morning, only to discover it half destroyed and the two girls missing. They had immediately joined the rescue team, but were having about as much luck as the rest of them.

"I have located Alex and am returning to base, inform Ratchet to have the med bay prepared, she's in poor health."

"Will do Optimus." Optimus broke radio contact with Sam and tried hailing Jazz and Hound again, still no answer. He noticed Alex was beginning to wake up.

"Mmhp…Optimus?" Alex sat up. "What's going on?"

"We are heading back to the base, Alex how are you feeling?"

"Like I've been run over."

"Were you?" Alex would have laughed if she had the energy.

"No, I'm just feeling a bit under the weather. What's been going on?"

"The base has been attacked by Blackfire's faction, and has sustained heavy damage. Everyone not injured has been searching for you and Charlie. I am sorry."

"Why?"

"I have failed you Alex. I withheld information that both you and Charlie deserved to know, in doing so I lost your trust and drove you to leave the base, allowing you to be captured yet again. If I had simply told you the truth none of this would have happened to you."

"No. I over reacted. I shouldn't have left. I'm not hurt just a bit scraped up and sick. You didn't fail me Optimus. Have you found Charlie? We were separated." Alex decided to change the subject.

"No she is still MIA."

"Oh."

"Rest assured we will find her."

"I know you will." Alex yawned suddenly and started drifting back to sleep, there was just something about Optimus that she trusted even if he had lied to her, she felt safe around him. He sped up and turned onto the highway. He hoped Charlie was unharmed.

-----------------

"So your car is a decepticon and your friend was a prisoner of Soundwave's, you're under the autobots protection, you were kidnapped by your car, then the base was destroyed, your car brought you to the road and let you go, then you found me?" Charlie nodded.

"Yep, that about covers it." Bluestreak whistled.

"Wow, and you said another human boy destroyed Megatron?" She nodded again. "Wow, do you guys have superpowers or something? I can't believe an organic destroyed Megatron!" He started laughing.

"Yeah well, we're pretty resourceful" He swerved onto another road and Charlie gripped the seat. "Umm, are you sure this is the way?"

"Yeah, it's this way." Charlie looked around, it didn't look like the way to the base that she was used to, but she wasn't the super advanced alien robot, so she just let Bluestreak keep on driving.

"Hey Blue, before we go to the base can we get some food?"

"Okay what do humans eat?"

"McDonalds."

"Where do you get that?"

"Um…well…um…I know use your GPS!"

"I can't."

"How come?"

"My navigation systems were damaged in the crash that's one of the reasons I ended up here."

"So we're driving around in an unknown area, neither of us know where we're going and your navigation system doesn't work?"

"Don't worry I told you I knew where I was going." Charlie didn't say anything, it looked like no matter what species a guy was they would refuse to admit they were lost. Charlie got comfortable, she might be here for a while.

---

"Hold still, you need to get out of these wet clothes." Alex sighed and let Ratchet fuss over her. He had been like a mother hen since Optimus had brought her back to base, and she had received a warm welcome from Ironhide and Mirage, who had examined her even more closely than Ratchet had, and had held her up to his optics and stared at her until she was uncomfortable. Ratchet had then swooped in out of nowhere and grabbed her and insisted on getting her some warmer clothes and checking her cuts again.

"Hey, I thought this was trashed." She held up the sweatshirt and sweatpants Ratchet had handed her and grabbed the wholly socks he was holding.

"We managed to salvage some of your things. This is the warmest of your clothes I could find." She slipped them on unabashedly and piled her wet clothes on the floor. Ratchet was a doctor and a robot to boot, he wouldn't care, but when she had settled herself under the covers of the cot in his med bay, he was looking at her curiously.

"I thought females were more modest when exposing skin." Alex shrugged.

"Yeah, to other humans. Besides, you're a doctor." Ratchet nodded.

"I see. I noticed you have some bruising yet around your ribs and shoulders." Alex shifted and pulled her damp hair into a braid and curled up in the cot, then coughed noisily. Ratchet immediately scanned her again.

"You have a cold, and I am unable to do anything about it until young Sam returns with Bumblebee to go on a supply run." He shook his head, looking frustrated.

"Why can't you use that light thing like you did before?"

"It was damaged in battle, I haven't gotten it working properly yet. I will have Sam get you some medicine in town when they return, but for now you must sleep." Alex nodded and yawned.

"Yeah, okay."

---------------------

Optimus was about to leave the base and look for Charlie, when Mirage approached him.

"Optimus, sir."

"Yes, Mirage."

"I wish to be made Alex's primary guardian. Sunstreaker doesn't care about the girl, he will only continue to endanger her life and is not capable of protecting her properly. Sunstreaker only cares about himself and Sideswipe." Optimus regarded him, he knew Mirage had become protective of Alex after his first failure at guarding her, and he seemed to be increasingly concerned about her.

"Why do you think I assigned Sunstreaker to be her guardian, Mirage?"

"To give Ratchet some peace." Optimus chuckled.

"Affirmative, that was part of the reason, but not the whole reason. You're right, Sunstreaker only cares about himself and his brother, but he needs Alex. He needs to learn to care about others, I believe Alex will help him, I believe that they will help each other. Sunstreaker needs this responsibility if he is ever going to grow as a mech….Besides he is quite similar to you." Mirage was about to object but Optimus quieted him. "At first you did not care about the girl either. It was when her life was in your hands that you began to care about her, and Sunstreaker has had the same thing happen to him. He has endangered Alex's life and now I believe he will take his duty to protect his charge much more seriously. I am sorry Mirage, but Sunstreaker will remain her primary guardian. It will be good for him." Mirage wasn't happy about Optimus's decision, but he understood it. He and Sunstreaker were similar. Initially Mirage hadn't cared at all about the girl, but when he saw her in Soundwave's cell, he felt the overwhelming need to protect her and keep her safe.

"Very well Prime."

"Very good. Now I am going out to search for Charlie, help Wheeljack with the repairs." Optimus started walking away. "Oh and Mirage make sure he doesn't blow anything up." Mirage started laughing at that. Like that would happen.

----------------

"Ummm, Blue?"

"Huh?"

"This isn't the base." Charlie looked up at the enormous four faces of their former presidents looking down at her. The base was nowhere near Mt. Rushmore.

"But I saw this too! They weren't very far apart!" Charlie sighed and pulled at her hair.

"That's because you were in the air, of course they looked closer together. Okay, when we headed to the base from town with Jazz, we went east, I think. This is not east, this is south."

"Oh." He shifted into gear and got back on the road.

"The good thing is I know how to get to my house from here. Turn left." He turned left onto the road she indicated and they were both quiet for awhile.

"Why do we need to go to your organic dwelling?"

"So I can get some stuff, then try and find the base, I think I could probably get there from my house." Bluestreak ohed.

"Good, because I need Ratchet to repair me, then I could really go for a good recharge, then of course I need to speak to Optimus, then----" Charlie sighed. This guy could talk forever.

"Yeah, okay I got ya."

"Oh okay, so what are earth dwellings like? The ones in Cybertron were like…they were like big warehouses, but usually soliders didn't have personal homes, they would live in military centers, near the end of the war everyone lived in them, unless they were a refugee, or they fled the planet. But then lots of us left to search for the all-spark, but it's gone now, and according to Optimus' message earth is to be our new home, but it's okay cause so far I like earth and I like humans, well you're the only human I've met so I like you. Do you like me? How many autobots have you met? Do you like them? I haven't seen another autobot in vorns. It'll be nice to see them again."

"Turn left. I like you, you're fun, I know nine autobots, well I met one over a screen so that's ten, but I know eleven transformers altogether excluding you. I like them, most can be very nice. I'm sure they'll be happy to see you too Blue."

"Blue's a good nickname I like it. Do you have a nickname Charlie? I read that humans like to give themselves nicknames. What else do humans like? I like…" Charlie sighed, if she wasn't so good at understanding fast talkers this would get old fast, but Bluestreak was cheery and it was nice to be around someone so optimistic, even if he did talk a mile a minute. They eventually reached her house and Bluestreak pulled into her driveway. She hadn't been home since she had first gotten her things from her house. It seemed like ages since she'd seen it again.

"This is where I live Bluestreak."

"It looks different from transformer dwellings."

"I bet." Charlie got out of Bluestreak and tried opening her front door, until she realized she locked it. Damn she forgot she did that and the keys were in her…backpack. Charlie hit her head. She was an idiot. She forgot Blackfire gave her, her backpack back, and that she had her cell phone in it, her cell phone she could've used to contact the autobots. Okay she couldn't let anyone know about this they would never let her live this down. "Um Bluestreak can you open your door for a second?"

"Sure!" Charlie grabbed hers and Alex's backpacks, she riffled through the pockets and found both cell phones. She took them both and threw them into her neighbor's backyard.

"Why did you do that?"

"Oh it's a human tradition, when you come home after a long time you throw your phone to bring good luck, but don't tell anyone okay or else my wish won't come true."

"Okay!" Charlie almost felt bad about lying to him, but there was no way in hell she was going to put up with all the shit Alex would give her if she told her about how she forgot she had a cell phone. Nope might as well tell her that Blackfire got rid of it. She pulled her keys out and went into her house, after telling Blue to hang tight, she wasn't sure if he knew what that meant, but he seemed eager to agree. She went into her house and grabbed a bit to eat, she was starving. After she was done eating she picked up her phone and tried calling Alex in order to have her pick her up, she looked outside when she heard a ringing, then it hit her. Boy was she dumb when she got captured of course she couldn't call Alex for a ride, she had her cell phone and she had thrown it in her neighbors yard, besides she didn't even know if Alex had been found yet. Damn, she was going to have to suck it up and call one of the autobots. Unless…

--

"Wow you do look beat up, here, I got you some meds." Sam gave Alex a bottle and used the cup on top to measure the dosage. She grimaced.

"It tastes terrible." Sam smoothed back his brown hair and reached into his beat up black backpack.

"I got some mountain dew?" He was going to hand it to her, but caught Ratchet's glare and withered.

"And I most certainly will not give it to you. You are far too sick, you should have some orange juice." Alex sighed. Ratchet was worse than her mother. Sam looked up and grinned as a yellow mech entered the room and danced over to them. "Hey Bee!" He began dancing with him and Alex giggled until they brushed up against one of Ratchet's medical tables, bumping his tools.

"Out!" They both pouted and gave Ratchet beaten puppy dog looks. He glared. "Fine, just stop dancing! Can't you two sit still for five minutes?" The two of them had barely been there for half an hour, and Alex was liking them more and more. Sam wasn't fazed by anything, and acted like he had seen it all before. She supposed he had. Bumblebee was adorable, and he and Sam were like two peas in a pod. She looked at them wistfully, she wished she could get a guardian like him. Instead she had been informed by Optimus that Sunstreaker will be her primary guardian to make up for the fact that he insulted her and failed to protect her when the base was attacked. She had pleaded with Optimus to reconsider.

"Can't you be my guardian instead?" But the large bot had smiled at her and shook his head.

"I would if I could, but I can't if a battle ever broke out again, I would be far too busy leading the autobots to be able to protect you properly, Sunstreaker will do a fine job, he just needs a second chance." Alex scoffed, there was no way Sunstreaker could do a good job protecting her, she'd just have to get Charlie to switch guardians with her.

---

"Oh, turn here!" Bluestreak took a sharp right causing Charlie to hit her head, she had decided she could find the base by herself, but she left the cells phones in her neighbors backyard and had been driving around with Bluestreak for about an hour trying to find the base. "Okay keep going. No, wait I was wrong this is how we get to the mall, go left." This had been going on for awhile.

"What's a mall?"

"Shopping center."

"Do humans like to shop?"

"The girls do. Oh wait take another left, I see a road." They turned onto it and Charlie frowned. "Maybe it was the other way." It was almost dark now, they had been searching all day. They were both getting frustrated, but neither one said anything. Charlie found another road she thought might lead to the base, when a pair of headlights flashed several times coming toward them. Charlie squinted.

"Is that who I think it is?"

"Jazz!" Bluestreak pulled a one eighty and Charlie squealed as she held onto his seat. Suddenly, Jazz's voice was heard over the radio.

"Bluestreak, hey man, what's happening? We weren't expectin you here!" Bluestreak was elated.

"I know! But my signal was jammed and I landed here, then I found this girl, her name's Charlie, she says she knows you, then neither of us could find the base, we've been looking for a long time, and---" But Jazz cut him off, laughing in delight.

"Charlie is with you? Thank goodness, we been looking everywhere for you girl." Charlie grinned.

"Hey Jazz, did you guys find Alex?"

"Optimus found her hours ago, she's at base recovering with Ratchet, hey you won't believe it, Sam and Bumblebee are here too, they've been helping us look for you girls." Charlie gasped.

"Really?" Bluestreak also revved his engine.

"Awesome!" Jazz laughed.

"Follow me, boy will Optimus be glad to see you two." Bluestreak followed Jazz back to base, all of them very relieved. They were only about ten miles from the base.

"See I knew it was close!" Jazz and Bluestreak drove into the base and Charlie whistled at all the damage. "Damn those D-cons did a number on this place." Charlie got out of Bluestreak and both he and Jazz transformed. Suddenly Charlie found herself in Jazz's hand being twirled around.

"I'm so glad you're back lil' lady, we were worried about you."

"I'm sorry Jazz I'll never run away from home again." They all laughed at that comment.

"Come on I know the doc will want to see you in the med bay as soon as possible."

"But Jazz I'm fine! Really I didn't get hurt at all, well my leg was already hurt, but it doesn't feel bad, my cast is fine! Don't make me go to Ratchet, if I see him twice in a few days, he'll go all crazy doctor on me and then he'll get angry. I don't want an angry lecture from Ratchet. Why don't you just say that you took me there, but Ratchet wasn't there, and by the time he was I got better? Yup that's a good plan, instead of going we can show Blue the base! Doesn't that sound like fun Blue?"

"Well actually I really need to get some of my systems repaired and a good recharge sounds nice and-"

"Oh you're no help." The expression on Bluestreak's face broke Charlie's heart, he looked like a kicked puppy that had been put out in the rain. "I didn't mean that Blue. I'd probably be dead in the woods and eaten by a bear if it wasn't for you. So thank you very much, I don't know what I would do if you hadn't been there." Bluestreak beamed at Charlie, he was easy to appease.

"Well let's go to the med bay." Charlie sighed and sat on Jazz's shoulder, might as well get this over with. Before they even opened the door they could hear a commotion. They walked in to see Ratchet chasing Bumblebee and Sam, who was clinging to the yellow bot's shoulder. Alex was laughing on her cot in the corner.

"Alex, you're okay!" Alex looked up as Charlie squirmed and Jazz set her next to her cot.

"You're okay, well actually, you look awful." Alex's dark blonde hair had been messed up and her braid hung over her shoulder. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she looked paler than usual. She sniffled and took a drink of her water.

"I got a cold from staying out in the rain." Charlie sat down on the side of the cot.

"Oh yeah, I was with Bluestreak then, he's a new arrival." She gestured to the white and grey bot that was greeting Sam and Bumblebee enthusiastically. Alex looked him over.

"What's he like?"

"Well, he talks fast, is pretty nice, has no sense of direction, and can't figure out that things aren't as close together as they appear from space." Alex blinked and nodded.

"I see." The bot in question bounced over to them, followed by Sam and Bumblebee.

"Hi, you must be Alex, Charlie told me about you, how are you, my name is Bluestreak, I'm new here." Alex looked at the excited bot, then looked back at Charlie.

"I see what you mean." She turned back to Bluestreak. "Yep, I'm Alex, I've been here for a couple of weeks, then I was captured again because decepticons like to capture me or something, now I'm sick and Ratchet won't leave me alone." Everyone stared except Charlie. She talked as fast as Bluestreak. The two of them proceeded to have a fast paced conversation and everyone blinked. Charlie shrugged.

"I'm used to it." She turned to Sam.

"You're that guy on the screen, I'm Charlie." Sam turned away from Alex and Bluestreak and held out his hand.

"Yep that's me, this is Bee, my guardian." Bumblebee bowed to her and she grinned.

"I've heard a lot about you guys…" Sam gasped and mock-fainted, Bumblebee catching him.

"Don't tell me these guys have been telling you bad stuff about us! We just like to have fun." He and Bumblebee gave each other high fives and Charlie shook her head.

"Actually they told us about how you defeated Megatron and that you guys were watching out for stray decepticons." They both straightened up, Sam looking sheepish.

"Yeah well, I got lucky."

"So how did you meet Bee anyway?"

"He's my car. I bought him."

"Oh my gosh! You're car was an alien robot? My car was an alien robot!"

"Really?"

"Yeah I thought he was a girl for five years and called her Nelly, but she's a he, and now he's trying to rule the decepticons and take over earth!" Sam stared at Charlie, she was unusually calm and sounded almost excited.

"Really?"

"Yeah!" Ratchet came over and scanned Charlie before Sam could say anything else.

"You are in need of sustenance, and your leg will need to be in that cast longer."

"Ah, really?"

"Yes, now go and eat before I force feed you."

"Jeez fine Ratch I'll go." She turned to Sam. "Want to come with?"

"Sure." Bumblebee picked Charlie up and headed to the door, Ratchet calling out to her.

"Make sure you stay away from Wheeljack for the next week, I have too much work to do to deal with anymore burns."

"Kay." Sam turned to Charlie.

"Why does he want you to stay away from Wheeljack?"

"He gives me _gifts_ and they blow up in my face. I think I pissed him off and now he's trying to kill me."

"He's giving you gifts? Maybe he likes you!" Charlie stared at Bumblebee like he had grown a second head.

"That's crazy and ridiculous and would never happen. Can we go get some food now, please?" Bumblebee started out towards the door, but was stopped by Optimus. He held out a hand.

"I'm sorry, you can eat soon, but I must see everyone in the med bay right away." They looked at each other and went back to the med bay, Charlie going back to sit on Alex's bed, who was having another coughing fit. They both turned to look at the door and Ironhide, Mirage, Wheeljack, Jazz, Hound, and the twins entered. They crowded around the small bay and Sam came and sat next to Charlie on the cot. The girls glanced at the twins, Sideswipe was looking at the girls and trying to catch their eye, while Sunstreaker leaned against the wall looking unconcerned. Charlie continued to stare at them while Alex turned her attention to Mirage, who was staring at her. When she looked over at him, he nodded at her and she smiled at him. He was watching out for her after all. Sunstreaker observed this grumpily. But everyone turned when Optimus spoke.

"We've had a security breach, the decepticons know our location now and new security measures will have to be taken. The decepticons are increasing their activity now more then ever; we will have to be even more vigilant than usual…"

---

"What were you two fools thinking?! I specifically told you not to engage anyone!"

"But we were spotted!" Starscream lunged out and slammed Dirge into a wall.

"I told you not to be spotted!" He released the seeker and slapped a hand to his forehead.

"You idiots almost ruined everything!" But a twisted smirk appeared on his face.

"But _Blackfire, _that is a surprise. And with the triple changers no less." Dirge and Ramjet backed away, hoping he wouldn't notice them. He did.

"No, I'm not done with you two. Stay." He walked over to his control panel and pushed a button. A screen showed Soundwave and his ocean base, another showed the remains of Blackfire's base. He grinned.

"Phase two begins…….now."


	11. Distractions

Distractions

"Alright, so after the explosion, the two of you were separated, and Charlie was found by Blackfire. She managed to get to the road and found Bluestreak, and they made their way to base after finding Jazz. Alex, what happened to you before I found you?" The two girls were sitting on the control panel in front of Optimus Prime, both of them wearing sweaters and sweatpants. Charlie looked fresh faced and alert, but Alex's eyes drooped and her skin had a slight green tinge. Ratchet was standing next to Optimus, fluttering around nervously until he could take her back to the med bay. She sniffed and rubbed her eyes, looking around the room. Jazz was leaning against the wall and Ironhide was standing next to Ratchet. The twins were by the door, both looking uncomfortable. It was, after all, their fault the girls were captured.

"Umm, I ran around looking for Charlie for awhile, climbed a tree, fell from the tree, and then Blitzwing found me." Gasps were heard around the room and Optimus leaned closer, afraid of what he heard. After the meeting last night and the worrying and talks about the decepticons, Alex had fallen asleep and Optimus chose to wait until the next morning to ask about her. Charlie had explained what happened to her the night before, but after Ratchet noticed Alex sleeping, he had kicked everyone out so that she could sleep. Sam and Bumblebee were out exploring and everyone else was busy elsewhere.

"Blitzwing? And you are still alive…" He trailed off. Alex nodded.

"Yeah well, he didn't want to, but he's not very smart and I managed to convince him that I was worth keeping around. Then I convinced him to go to a convenience store and he fell down a cliff, he's kind of clumsy, then I got food and stuff, but I couldn't escape because he was waiting for me right outside. So then we went back into the forest and he fell asleep, but he was holding me and I couldn't move so I fell asleep too. I woke up and he was putting me down, I think that Astrotrain guy was there, I don't know why he left though. I ran off as soon as they were gone, and it started raining and I wandered around for a long time, then I found the road and then you found me."

"You were able to convince Blitzwing not to kill you? He's one of the most dangerous and powerful decepticons."

'Um well he wasn't that bright and I'm a talker and I con Charlie all the time so I had lots of practice."

"It's true she cons me a lot and I just never learn."

"So yeah he was gullible…" Alex shuffled around bit, she was starting to get uncomfortable with all the questioning, she really didn't know why Blitzwing just left her, but he did and she was sick of explaining it. Hm…sick…

"Well you know—" Alex cut off and started coughing, Ratchet was next to her in a second, examining her, and a second later he was picking her up and taking her into the med bay. Alex sighed in relief, now she could relax for a bit before everyone started questioning her again, she wondered how long she could play the sick card and have Ratchet come to her rescue. She yawned as he tucked her in and she fell asleep.

Charlie sighed, she knew Alex was faking and was hoping she wouldn't get stuck answering questions now. She looked around at the remaining autobots.

"So what's happening hot stuffs?" Charlie winked at them all and tried to get off the table she was sitting on, she tried shimming down the side, but Sideswipe came out of nowhere and grabbed her. "You know it's really rude just to grab people. How would you like it if someone came out of nowhere and picked you up?"

"You were about to fall."

"I was? Well golly gee willikers what do you know I was!" Sideswipe looked at her uncertainly.

"Er….yeah." Charlie looked at him, he seemed nicer than his brother, he didn't seem to mind humans. Maybe he was the good twin.

"Yeah!" She punched her arms in the air, testing him. He raised his other fist and copied her questioningly.

"Yeah?" Sunstreaker hmphed from the corner. Charlie ignored him. Well, if this Sideswipe guy was supposed to be her guardian, she might as well get to know him. She glanced over at the yellow mech leaning against the wall who was purposefully not looking at them and sighed. Alex had her work cut out for her on this one.

"Let's go do something." Sideswipe held her up face level.

"Like what?"

"Like something." He put a hand to his chin and hmmed.

"Well I know lots of somethings…."

"Are you hitting on me?"

"No! I would never hit you, I'm your guardian, and it's my job to protect you."

"Super duper. So what do you do for fun? Oh I know! I've never been in a Lamborghini before lets go for a drive, I'll show you around…well I'll try, but you know where the base is so we don't have anything to worry about! Hi ho Silver away!" Charlie pumped her fist in the air, confusing Sideswipe. She then pointed dramatically to the exit; he shrugged and left with her, mumbling to himself

"But I'm red….." They left the room and Sunstreaker stared after them. He left and went the short distance to the med bay, and peered around the corner. Ratchet was away, and his charge was sleeping on a small cot. He walked in and looked down at her. She didn't look good, and he could only see her head, she had the covers around her tightly. He sniffed again and turned to leave.

"You better start taking this seriously." Sunstreaker turned and looked at Mirage.

"What's your fascination with the femme? She's my charge not yours."

"And you failed to protect her."

"So did you." They glared at each other for a minute, before Ratchet entered and stopped as he noticed the two mechs glowering at each other. He narrowed his eyes.

"Out, both of you." They reluctantly turned away and left the room. Ratchet sighed and shook his head.

"Stupid, prideful, stubborn glitchheads, disrupting my med bay."

"Wait, wait, let me get this straight, you had one of the flesh creatures, and you just set it down, walked away and forgot about it?"

"Astrotrain located me and ordered me to reconvene to this location, when I went back to get her she was gone!"

"How long were you gone before you remembered you left it there?"

"I thought she would stay put!" Blackfire watched as Blitzwing and Motormaster argued. He had to put a stop to this, his base was destroyed, both Soundwave and Starscream knew where he was stationed, he lost the advantage, and now his troops were fighting amongst themselves. He didn't need this.

"Enough!" Both Motormaster and Blitzwing stopped bickering instantly. "Both of you will cease behaving like sparklings and start acting like the decepticon warriors you are. Motormaster, have Drag Strip and Dead End search for an area for a new base. Blitzwing, you and Astrotrain patrol the area make sure no one comes near here." Blitzwing nodded and left to find Astrotrain.

"Aren't you going to punish him? He let the organic go!" Blackfire rounded on Motormaster and punched him in the face.

"I'm growing tired of your insolence Motormaster. The humans are unimportant, allowing them to live will not hurt our cause. Now take the rest of the stunticons and salvage what you can from headquarters, we must be ready when they attack next."

"And what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to pay an old friend a visit." Blackfire transformed and drove off.

"So this is what you do for fun?" Charlie nodded enthusiastically from her place on top of the slide and Sideswipe sighed. He was in his alt form in a parking lot next to a play ground where Charlie had been playing on the swings and going down her 'slide'.

"Okay, I think I need to show you how to really have fun." Charlie slid down the slide and walked over to him. She had changed into jeans and a purple sweater and put her hair in a ponytail. She crossed her arms.

"This is too fun. You're just jealous you can't go down slides, but I'll bite, what do you do to really have fun?"

"Ever pull a prank?"

"Okay now I'm interested. Open up red and lead the way." Sideswipe opened his door and drove back to the base with Charlie. When they reached the base they met up with Bumblebee and Sam.

"Hey guys, how was recon?"

"Good, what are you two up to?" Before Sideswipe could stop her Charlie started talking.

"Pulling a prank, it's my first time, Sideswipe said he'd be gentle." Sam cracked up at that remark, and Charlie started laughing with him. Sideswipe and Bumblebee looked at each other and the kids, they didn't get what was so funny. They followed them down the corridor, till they passed the med bay. The door was open and Charlie saw Alex peering blearily at them from her bed. She rushed in and Sam turned and followed her. The mechs blinked at each other and shrugged, following them.

"Alex, you're awake!" She hopped over and sat on the bed and Sam followed her. Ratchet was gone again, so they felt comfortable talking loudly. She yawned and rubbed her eyes. Sideswipe awed.

"You're so cute when you humans yawn. Come 'ere." He picked her up, blankets and all, and raised her up to his face. Alex peered at him blearily and wrapped the blankets around her. He cooed at her and began to pet her head. At that moment Sunstreaker walked in and stared at his twin, who was petting his charge.

"What are you doing Sides?"

"Sunny!"

"Why are you petting my charge?"

"I'm being nice."

"How would you like it if I petted your human?" Sunstreaker picked Charlie up and started petting her.

"Ouch you jerk that hurts! Are you trying to take my skin off? Quick Bee you gotta save me!" Bumblebee stopped laughing at the scene before him and snapped to attention, he pulled Charlie out of Sunstreaker's hands and placed her on his shoulder next to Sam.

_"Once again the day is saved thanks to the powerpuff girls!" _ Charlie stared at Bumblebee.

"What was that?"

"Bee likes to talk through the radio."

"Oh okay I can deal with that. Play me some funky music white boy." Bumblebee started playing music from his speakers. He set Sam and Charlie down and they began dancing violently, Bumblebee started grooving and he turned up the music. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe stared, the latter still petting Alex subconsciously. It was then Ratchet walked in, staring askance as Sam, Charlie, and Bumblebee were dancing. But he zeroed in on Sideswipe petting Alex and exploded like a bomb.

"_What the slag are you doing?"_ The music stopped and everyone froze in place, looking at Ratchet in horror. Bumblebee suddenly blared like a siren and he, Sam, and Charlie rushed out of the room. Sideswipe held onto Alex more securely before running after them. Ratchet turned to Sunstreaker.

"What, I didn't do anything! What are you-----" But Ratchet had thrown a wrench at him and he yelped and followed his twin.

"Get back here you're going to get all the humans sick!" Ratchet ran out of the med bay and started chasing after them.

Charlie, Sam, Bumblebee and Sideswipe with Alex in tow were running through the halls of the base, Bumblebee still had music blasting out of his speakers. Sam looked over at Charlie.

"How are you running this fast with a broken leg?"

"Practice." Bumblebee reached down and placed Sam and Charlie on his shoulders again, by then Sunstreaker had caught up with them.

"Good going Sides you got Hatchet mad and now he's chasing us."

"Just like old times huh?" Just then Ratchet rounded the corner and spotted them.

"Put the organics down! You're going to get them hurt!" Bumblebee, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker started running faster, trying to get away from Ratchet, a door opened and out stepped Bluestreak.

"Hey guys what's going on?"

"Running from the Hatchet." Sideswipe huffed as he ran past Bluestreak.

"Oh okay." Bluestreak started running with them. They passed Hound and ran into a large room the humans had never been in before. They shut the door and barred it and Ratchet started banging on it. The twins laughed and Sam and Charlie looked around curiously.

"What is this room?"

"Hmmm? Oh, it's just our rec room."

"Cool, hey Bumblebee, crank da tunes." He turned the music back on and they started dancing again, Charlie coaxing Bluestreak to join them. She started doing the robot, convinced it was the only dance the autobots could do because they couldn't shake their hips.

"This is how robots dance." Charlie started teaching Bluestreak the robot. "Pop and lock Blue, pop and lock."

_I'm bringing sexy back _

_And all you boys don't know how to act. _

_I think it's special what's behind your back_

_So turn around and I'll pick up the slack _

"This song was made for me!" Sunstreaker started tapping his foot rocking out to his theme song.

"No it's not! It's totally about me!"

"There goes the battle of the egos again."

"What do you mean Charlie?"

"Nothing, just keep on dancing Blue." Sideswipe was smiling in mirth, holding Alex while she and Sunstreaker argued about who the song was about.

"I'm sexier!"

"No I am! I got hips yo!" Alex stood up on Sideswipe's hands and struck a pose. Sunstreaker hmphed.

"And just what difference does that make?" Alex smirked.

"_Everything."_ He blinked. She seemed very convinced. "Besides, this song was made by humans, for humans, and about humans. So there." She sat back down and pulled her blankets back around her and leaned against Sideswipe's chest. She looked tired suddenly and she blinked as she noticed the wall in the far corner move.

"Did you see that?"

"See what?"

"The wall."

"Yes, yes I do see the wall. Girly your friend is weird." Sideswipe said to Charlie.

"Ah she's probably just delusional from her cold." Charlie looked over to the door and heard Ratchet pounding on it, she could let him in and he could take care of Alex and her fever, but she was having a fun party, oh well, Charlie shrugged. Alex kept staring at the wall.

"It moved."

"Walls don't move Alex."

"It did I saw it!" Alex continued to examine the wall, it hadn't moved yet, but she was ready if it did. After five minutes of staring and not blinking Alex was starting to think that maybe it was the fever.

"Hello."

"AH!" Alex jumped and looked to her right, there was Mirage.

"You were the wall!"

"I was by the wall."

"And you moved! I knew it I was right! In your face Charlie walls do too move it wasn't the fever it was Mirage! Mirage tell Charlie it was you."

"It was me?" Mirage seemed slightly confused; this was the most he had spoken to Alex aside from when they were in the med bay together.

"How ya doing Mirage? Wanna learn the hokey pokey? No, no Blue left foot in then out, then you shake it all about, not before." He blinked and took a step backward, the other femme was weird. Alex was looking at him curiously and he turned back to her. He noticed Sideswipe was slightly tense, and he smirked.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Your ability to turn invisible. It's interesting." He nodded in agreement. Sunstreaker had enough and stalked over to them, grabbing Alex from Sideswipe and holding her in one hand.

"Get your own charge." He mumbled and Alex yelled as her hair got caught in between his fingers. Mirage started forward and Sunstreaker held her away from him.

"You're hurting her!"

"I am not!" She had her head tilted back to relieve the pressure.

"Umm, could you move your fingers, my hair is caught, it hurts." He blinked and loosened his grip and she righted herself, making sure her hair was out of the way. She stared at his face and shrunk a little. She hadn't forgotten what he said, though she knew he wouldn't hurt her if Optimus told him not to, that didn't mean she liked him. "Can you put me down now?" Mirage smirked at Sunstreaker.

"Why you're my charge, that means we're supposed to be friends."

"Put me down I still don't like you."

"Why not?"

'You threatened to step on me!"

"You insulted my paint job!"

"Yellow isn't a good color this season. Now put me down!" Mirage kept on smirking at Sunstreaker and held his hand out for Alex, who climbed on it. Mirage was at least better than Sunstreaker, she thought, even if he kept on giving her that creepy look.

"Eh Macarena!" Sunstreaker, Alex and Mirage looked over at Charlie who was teaching Bumblebee, Sideswipe and Bluestreak the Macarena.

"Hey that's my dance! You can't teach them my dance you're doing it wrong! Put me down I have to show her what's what." Mirage lowered his hand and Alex scrambled over to Charlie. "What do you think you're doing? You know the Macarena is mine, you have the robot." With that, Alex began to Macarena and Charlie copied her. It was at that moment Ratchet broke the door down, Optimus and Ironhide standing next to him, curious.

"You will stop, now." He looked half crazy and everybody took a step back. Alex wasn't nervous, he wouldn't do anything, he put far too much effort into keeping her healthy to do anything to her, it would be a waste of time. She instead walked over to Optimus and hugged his leg.

"Will you dance with me?" He looked at her bemused and picked her up. With Alex in Optimus's care, Ratchet targeted the twins and Bumblebee, and screams were heard as he charged at them threateningly. Mirage had conveniently disappeared, and Charlie and Sam took refuge behind Ironhide's feet. Alex paid them no mind and continued to talk to Optimus.

"Come on, it'll be fun, hold your hands like this." Alex was giggling, trying to get Optimus to dance with her, and he was looking down at her not entirely sure what to do.

"I don't believe I can dance with you Alex it won't exactly work."

"Why not?" Alex tried giving Optimus her best puppy dog eyes.

"We are not the same size, it would be dangerous, and even I'm afraid of Ratchet at the moment." Alex looked at Ratchet who was chasing the twins and Bumblebee with a saw, where did he get that?

"Please? Pretty please with sugar on top?" She stuck her bottom lip out and her eyes started to water, this had to work. "Pwease Optimus?" He cringed and gave. These human femmes were very persuasive. He held out his hand over her and she held onto his fingers and twirled in his palm. He smiled at her glee and they continued dancing. Meanwhile, Ratchet had caught the twins, and Charlie and Sam had left, deciding to watch movies in the human quarters. Ironhide had left a while ago, and Bumblebee was sneaking away from Ratchet. Optimus dropped Alex off at the human quarters after the music stopped.

"I love Indiana Jones." Charlie sighed dreamily as she, Alex, and Sam walked back to their quarters.

"Yeah, Raiders of the Lost Ark is the best." Sam nodded. They moved to the wall when they heard thundering footsteps behind them and turned to greet the autobot. It was Ratchet.

"Girls, I need you back in the med bay, Alex, you need to take another dose of cold medicine, and Charlie, I'm going to check your leg." They sighed and waved at Sam, who walked into their rooms, and followed Ratchet back to the med bay. He gave Alex her medicine and watched as she swallowed every drop. He checked her temperature and found it was still a little high.

"You will spend another night here where I can keep an eye on you; I don't want you having a relapse." Alex sighed and grabbed her spare set of pajamas she took to keeping in there. She changed into her black tank top and striped shorts and crawled under the covers. Charlie looked at her strangely.

"You just---" Alex nodded and shrugged.

"He's a robot doctor." Charlie just looked at her oddly. "I wasn't raised in a super modest household like you." Charlie just shrugged and looked up at Ratchet. He pointed at the other cot and she sat down and lifted her broken leg.

"I still can not heal you properly, I am afraid that will take a while longer for me to repair." He frowned as he inspected her cast. It had started to tear in one corner and had a cut through it.

"I need to replace your cast; it got quite the beating from your kidnapping." Charlie turned an odd shade of yellow when he prodded it and a small whizzing saw appeared from his fingers. She yelped as soon as it touched her cast. Ratchet stopped and looked at her in alarm.

"It hurts when you move it, can't I keep it on, it's nice and tight and doesn't hurt." Ratchet frowned.

"It shouldn't." But he was having trouble maneuvering his bulky fingers and he kept accidentally jabbing her cast. And his saw was making Charlie cringe. He huffed in frustration.

"This isn't working, if only I was smaller, then I'm sure I wouldn't have a problem, but it looks like we will have to wait until my light treatment is fixed." A crash was heard in the corner and the girls jumped to see Wheeljack remove himself from a pile of Ratchet's tools.

"I've got it!" He raced out of the room and Ratchet stared with his mouth open. Charlie and Alex looked at each other.

"Damn, I didn't even notice him."

"Me neither."

"Does he usually exclaim loudly and run out of rooms Ratch?"

"Yes, and it usually means more work for me."

"That means something is going to explode."

"Oh. Ratchet can I leave? Sam and I were watching a movie and you don't need to watch me tonight."

"You might as well, I have to leave the cast on, just be careful."

"Righty-o I'll make sure I don't get kidnapped again."

"Is it kidnapping if you got into the car willingly?"

"Eh who knows? Good night you two."

"Good night Charlie." Alex sighed and watched Ratchet work until she closed her eyes and brought the sheets up over her eyes. She might as well just move in here, for how much time she spent there.

"How's the relocation coming along?"

"Still searching for a good place boss." Blackfire was sitting on a medical table in one of the only sections of his base that remained undamaged, speaking to Astrotrain and Blitzwing.

"Of course you are." Blackfire muttered under his breath. "Keep scanning the area." Astrotrain looked over at Blackfire, who was concentrating on repairing his arm.

"So Starscream slagged you up pretty good, huh?"

"He's worse off, I'd like to see a seeker fly with no wings."

"Why did you go and find him anyway?"

"To propose an alliance in order to defeat Soundwave, but the bastard wasn't interested, meaning he's got something up his sleeve." The triple changers stared at Blackfire, unsure what he just meant. Blackfire sighed, he had gotten so used to using human slang, he forgot that the other decepticons would have no idea what he meant.

"He has something else planned, keep your optics open. I won't let that son of a glitch win again."


	12. Human Guidebook

The Human Guidebook

"Brilliant! I've done it!" Alex looked up from her breakfast.

"What was that?"

"Sounds like Wheeljack, he must've invented something, he has been in his lab for the past few days."

"Wanna check it out?"

"Eh? Why not?" Charlie and Alex left their room and went to locate Wheeljack. It had been a few days since they had returned from Blackfire's base, Sam and Bumblebee had returned to Tranquility and now the girls were by themselves again. When they went into Wheeljack's lab they were greeted by a sight they would never have expected.

"Holy shit!" Both girls covered their eyes, in front of them was a tall mid thirties male with blue eyes and brown hair, this wouldn't have surprised Charlie and Alex that much it was the fact that the man was completely naked that got them. The man walked over to Charlie and grabbed her hands.

"Charlie I've done it!" Charlie opened her eyes and looked at the man, being careful to keep her eyes on his face.

"Who are you, and why are you naked in a secret autobot base, and how do you know my name?"

"Charlie it's me, Wheeljack."

"Really?" Charlie asked skeptically. She may be gullible but there was no way in hell she was falling for this one. Wheeljack was a twenty something foot robot, this was a naked guy holding her hand.

"Yes, I used Hound's hologram technology and tweaked it and now I can make solid holoforms!" Charlie started inching towards the door taking her hands back.

"You can't make light solid, you're naked and I'm gonna go find Ironhide now." She looked at Alex. "Run!" Both girls took off running, the man claiming to be Wheeljack started running after them.

"Wait stop! Its okay it's me!" The girls kept running before they crashed into something, they looked up and saw Ironhide. They ducked and hid behind his legs.

"Quick stop him!"

"What are you two doing? Stop who?"

"Him!" Charlie pointed to the naked man turning the corner.

"Intruder!" Ironhide started firing his canons at the man, blasting holes in the wall, and everywhere else.

"Ironhide stop! It's me!" Ironhide kept on firing at the intruder, despite his pleas.

"Girls get to safety, I'll stop him!" By this time the other autobots heard all the noise and came to investigate.

"Ironhide what's going on here?"

"Optimus sir, I've found an intruder, he was attempting to kill the girls."

"No, I wasn't Optimus sir, it's me Wheeljack, here I can prove it." With that the man disappeared.

"Okay everyone else saw him disappear right?" Just then Wheeljack rounded the corner and stopped in front of everyone.

"See I told you."

"Wheeljack that doesn't prove anything you're just standing in front of us."

"No look." Wheeljack punched a button on a device he was holding and suddenly the man appeared again.

"Huh? What do you know?" The man disappeared again and Wheeljack started talking to Optimus.

"The other day I overheard Ratchet talking to Charlie, he wasn't able to help her leg because he was too bulky and I got the idea to make it easier for us to interact with them, see Ratchet now you can help Charlie with her cast. I used Hound's hologram technology and after several attempts I was able to make it solid." Alex spoke up then.

"No, no, no even if you could do that, and you really shouldn't be able to, then how the hell were you able to follow us, through the doors and walls, once again if you got these holograms working, they couldn't go through walls."

"No, no Alex its okay, science doesn't apply to these guys." The autobots looked down at Charlie.

"What do you mean science doesn't apply to us?"

"Well, for starters where does Prime's trailer go when he transforms, how can Astrotrain fit entire troops of decepticons in him when he is only ten feet taller then Optimus, if Nelly is Optimus' height then how did he transform into my Honda civic, and compact car mind you? Not to mention your all-spark was basically raw energy, but when it was destroyed you couldn't rebuild Cybertron, but energy can not be created or destroyed." They kept staring at Charlie. "You know, thermodynamics? First and second laws of thermodynamics? But you guys say it's gone forever and it shouldn't be, it should just be somewhere else." Everyone kept staring at her. "What did you think I was stupid? Well most of the time I'm not, I just have no common sense there is a difference." They kept staring at her, suddenly…

"So Wheeljack tell us how this works." She sighed as they turned back to Wheeljack, and Alex shrugged.

"Maybe they don't know what thermodynamics is." But Wheeljack kept demonstrating his holoform and the girls kept jumping because the naked man kept appearing. Alex finally couldn't take it anymore.

"OKAY! First of all, humans don't walk around naked, you need clothes, and second, you can't have one of a real person, someone will notice." The holoform disappeared and Wheeljack rubbed his chin in thought.

"Clothes, yes……and an original human form, ah yes, I know….brilliant!" With that he raced back to his lab and everyone blinked. The girls moved carefully in between the autobots feet and started back to their rooms when they were both grabbed from behind.

"What the hell!" Sideswipe grinned at the two of them and began carrying them to the door, Sunstreaker following.

"Hey, let's go do something fun, ummm, something, uhhh, let's go for a drive!" The girls glared at him.

"Don't sneak up on us like that!"

"Yeah."

"Okay, fine, sorry." He handed the girls over to Sunstreaker and then transformed, Sunstreaker set them down and then did the same, the girls climbed into Sideswipe. Sunstreaker called out to Alex.

"Hey! What's the deal? I'm your guardian, ride with me."

"Um, no." Alex closed Sideswipe's door and told him to go. Sunstreaker's voice came over the radio.

"That's not how it works, I'm **your **guardian, so you ride with **me.**" Alex crossed her arms over her red paisley shirt and shook her head.

"No, I want to ride with Charlie in Sideswipe." Sunstreaker growled and pulled ahead of Sideswipe, blocking him.

"Get in now."

"No!" Charlie huffed and got out and walked over to Sunstreaker and opened his door.

"See Alex, he's not going to do anything, watch." She got in him and closed the door, then opened it again. Sunstreaker humored her. But Alex was not convinced. Charlie sighed, seeing the stubborn look on her face, and got back into Sunstreaker.

"That's it, we'll switch. I'll ride with Sunstreaker, you ride with Sideswipe, we can switch on the way back." Both Alex and Sunstreaker grumbled and they took off.

"Thundercracker behind you!" Thundercracker barrel rolled out of the way of a blast, he transformed and turned around firing on Mixmaster. Starscream growled and charged Soundwave, who had just shot Thrust from the sky.

"You slagger, you'll pay for this! How the hell did you find us?!" Soundwave flipped as he dodged Starscream and shot a rocket at him, it clipped it him.

"Starscream failure: base easily detected."

"Yeah Screamer you might as well had neon lights on your base, it was so easy to find."

"Shut up Rumble!" Starscream fired his null rays at the two of them. They dodged and Scavenger came up from behind them, Starscream shot him off a cliff and turned back to Soundwave, whose shot hit in right in the chest. He staggered backward to try to get his bearing, but Soundwave kicked him down and put a foot on his chest.

"You------" But at that moment a large explosion sounded above them and both of them looked up to see a large human passenger jet with a smoking engine coming straight for them. Soundwave leapt up and flew off, followed by the rest of his team, and Thundercracker pulled him out of the way just in time.

\"I didn't see it, I was trying to get Laserbeak, that slagger----" Starscream shoved him and they flew off.

"It doesn't matter, the place will be crawling with fleshlings now, we must go back underground it seems.

"Awww, I hate those damn caves." Starscream jostled Skywarp and flew higher; Soundwave was nowhere to be seen.

"Shut up! It looks like Soundwave has fled, the coward. But rest assured, I will see him scrapped, sooner rather than later….."

"You know we've left them outside for like two hours, we never left Jazz alone for that long."

"Don't care. Oh look at these boots." After realizing they couldn't think of anything to do with the twins, Alex and Charlie had them take them to the mall and left them in the parking lot and went shopping.

"You really don't like them do you. Those are hot."

"I don't mind Sideswipe, I mind Sunstreaker."

"He's not that bad, he is like the most arrogant person I've ever met, but I think he feels really bad that he ran us off, I think they both do." But Alex didn't answer and Charlie knew it would take more than that for her to forgive him.

"You know, you're a bit alike….." But at Alex's horrified and indignant look she shut up. "Yeah okay, nevermind." They gathered their purchases, grabbed lattes from Starbucks, and headed back out into the parking lot. It was a warm sunny day, just after five, and just as well, as the twins were nowhere to be seen. They blinked and looked at each other.

"I think they ditched us." Alex sat down on a bench and fixed her sandals and her shorts, and put on her sunglasses. Charlie was still standing staring at the parking lot in disbelief.

"But, damn, I guess we did leave them here too long. They're probably just going around the block." Charlie sat down next to her and pulled her purple t-shirt down to cover her back. Her jeans and black flip flops looking beat up compared to Alex's sandals and bare legs.

"Yeah okay. They totally ditched us. Try calling them." Charlie brightened and dug around in her big silver purse trying to find her cell phone. She pulled it out and dialed the twin's private channel, luckily Wheeljack made hem both new cell phones after she told him that she lost theirs.

"Sideswipe, is that you? You're gone!"

"_You guys didn't come back out, we got bored."_

"Sorry, well, we're ready to go now."

"_Right, we'll be there soon." _Charlie snapped her cell phone shut and turned to Alex, who was lounging next to her looking for all the world like she owned the place. She sighed. She really was more like Sunstreaker than she was willing to admit.

"They're on their way." But Alex didn't answer. She was too busy glaring at a group of people milling not too far from them, closer to the mall doors, and they were shooting them scathing glances and giggling. There were mostly girls, with a few preppy boys mixed in. Charlie glared too. She wouldn't forget the shit they had to deal with in high school from all the jocks and preps for not being just like them. They didn't have a clique, there was just a rag tag little group of friends that didn't fit anywhere else. Well, Charlie thought, they don't have robot best friends now do they? Show's them that nothing good comes from being bitchy preps.

"Hey, what are you two doing here? Don't you have a freak convention to go to?"

"No we went to that last week, this week its blow jobs for dummies, so you already have your tickets right or are you the one teaching it?"

"Why you?!" The girl who had spoken to Charlie was now sputtering indignantly.

"Get lost you stupid slutty bitches." Alex took a threatening step toward them, confident the tiny prep would freak, but before she could say another word, a loud screech was heard, and two Lamborghinis skidded into view. They weaved in and out of other cars and drifted around the corner, skidding to a stop in front of Alex and Charlie. The group of preps gaped and Charlie smirked.

"Well, looks like our rides are here. And just in time too, I was getting sick of staring at your ugly ass faces." She saluted them and got into Sideswipe. Sunstreaker's door opened, and Alex paused for a second, still glaring at the preps, before huffing and turning up her nose. She stepped gracefully into Sunstreaker and the door slammed and the two lambos zoomed out of the parking lot, cars swerving left and right to avoid them.

"What the heck were you guys doing, it looked like you were going to attack that girl." Alex crossed her arms.

"Just some people we used to know." Sunstreaker didn't say anything. She was very tense, he buckled his seatbelt around her and she jumped.

"Hey!"

"Safety first." She snorted.

"Yeah whatever." Charlie's voice was suddenly heard through the radio.

"Race you back to the base! Go!" Sideswipe gunned it and took off, leaving Sunstreaker and Alex in a cloud of dust.

"Oh damn it Charlie! Hit it we can't let her win!"

"Slagging right we aren't." Sunstreaker hit the gas and was quickly catching up with Sideswipe. They swerved onto the interstate and weaved through the lanes. Alex jumped and pointed.

"There, exit there, I think there's a short-cut!" Sunstreaker swerved and almost hit a blue SUV and shot down the exit ramp and barreled down the road. "Quick, use your GPS! I know Charlie won't think to check!"

"You're right! Ha, they're eating dust already!" They passed a blue Cadillac driven by an old couple and skidded onto a dirt road. Charlie's voice was heard over the radio.

"Where the hell are you guys? Take a detour Alex?" She asked tauntingly. Alex laughed.

"No, we're just so far ahead of you, you can't even see our dust trail anymore."

"Ha you wish. See you at the base Sides and I will be waiting." Charlie cut off the radio transmission, leaving Alex and Sunstreaker in silence.

"Oh she is going to eat those words, come on Sunny pedal to the metal, we're only a few miles from the base."

"Right." Sunstreaker flew around a turn and the base came into sight.

"Alright! We are so going to kick her ass." Sunstreaker went even faster then skidded to a halt right in front of the base, moments later Sideswipe came cruising down the road and stopped beside Sunstreaker, Charlie and Alex got out of their perspective rides, who transformed.

"Boo-yeah! Take that! I beat you!" Alex started doing a victory dance. "High five!" She held her hand up for Sunstreaker to hit, he looked up high five on the internet and then held out his finger meeting Alex's hand. "Sweet driving Sunny we kicked their asses!"

"Well I am the fastest, prettiest, and all over greatest thing in existence." Charlie scowled.

"Yeah, well, just wait till next time!" She shook her fist at them, Sideswipe copying her, and they went inside the base. Sunstreaker and Alex were both still engaging in victory cheers, Alex raised her hand for another high five when she realized she was getting along with Sunstreaker, not only that they high fived and she used his nick name. She suspiciously glared at Sunstreaker.

"Oh you're good." Alex walked into the base, glaring at Sunstreaker over her shoulder. Sunstreaker was confused.

"What just happened?" Sunstreaker stalked into the base trying to figure out what was up with his charge. "Hey come back!"

After Charlie put her things away she walked back out to Sideswipe, and he put her on his shoulder.

"So Red what do you want to do?"

"Well we could—be right there—sorry kid I just got called on patrol."

"No problem. Have fun." Sideswipe set her down and walked away, Charlie sighed, she didn't want to go back to her room just yet, she didn't have anything to do and decided to go find one of the 'bots, maybe Jazz or Hound were free. Charlie walked around trying to find someone.

"Charlie?" She looked around and spotted a man with light brown hair falling around his face, he had a five o'clock shadow and was wearing a white jacket with a red and green design on it with slightly baggy blue carpenter jeans. He had bright blue eyes, he was six foot with a lithe build and was in his mid twenties.

"Hi?"

"Do you like it?" The man walked to Charlie and stood proudly.

"Wheeljack?"

"Yes, it's my new holoform model do you like it?" Charlie examined him more closely and started giggling. "What's the matter did I get something wrong?"

"No it's not that Jack, it's that you have a five o'clock shadow. I'm laughing cause I think it's funny that even in your holoform you would forget to shave, it seems like something you would forget to do." Wheeljack seemed disheartened.

"But I thought you liked men with facial hair? I heard you tell Alex that once." Charlie was stunned.

"You made your holoform have facial hair cause you thought I'd like it?" Wheeljack nodded, his holoform blushed, and Charlie was impressed with how much effort Wheeljack must have put in to it to make it so human like.

"Kind of."

"I love it." Charlie grabbed his hand and noticed how warm it was, she started walking with him to his lab. "Will you tell me more about your holoforms?" This seemed to make Wheeljack happy and he started leading her to his lab.

"Sure! See, after I copied Hound's holograms, I just had to make them solid using a molecular conversion beam I invented. Basically it's a matter transfer that consumes as much energy as shooting a plasma cannon, since you humans are so small. Next I just had to copy human body reactions, which I'm still working on. I mean, I haven't been able to copy your blood quite yet, but I made due with a data transfer that transports all the information, similar to human DNA." Charlie blinked, trying to keep up. Boy he sure was proud, and it was weird to be walking next to him. He was gesturing enthusiastically and she looked down to see he was leaving footprints. He really was smart.

"Then of course I had to make an original human form for myself. I found a fabulous web site that had information pertaining to human features relating to ones personality."

"Uhhh…" Wheeljack stopped at her confused expression.

"It compared build, skin color, texture, eye color, hair color, and other features to corresponding personality traits." Charlie ohed.

"Gotcha, I've been to a few of those myself." He beamed at her and they walked into his lab, where his mech form was. He was standing with blank optics, and it creeped Charlie out. Suddenly, his holoform vanished and his optics glowed blue once again. He leaned over and picked her up, placing her up on his work table.

"Still working out glitches. I'm still having trouble projecting through solid matter…." He looked at the door contemplatively. Just then Ratchet came through it.

"Ah here you are Charlie I need to check your cast."

"Just the person I was looking for!" Wheeljack exclaimed.

"Uh never mind I'll just come back." Ratchet started inching his way towards the door.

"No, no wait I have to make you a holoform, I've got it half done, but you have to decide on some of the details."

"That's alright Wheeljack, I'll be fine." Ratchet turned and went out the door, Wheeljack started chasing after him.

"No it's okay it hasn't exploded or anything. It's perfectly safe! Ratchet wait!" Charlie started laughing and jostled some of the tools, almost falling off the table. Ratchet came racing back in to check on her. Wheeljack appeared behind him.

"How'd you get back in here so fast?" But Ratchet was frowning at her cast, then looked at Wheeljack. He frowned and shook his head, looking from Charlie to Wheeljack. He sighed and lifted his head.

"Fine, I'll do it."

Some time later…

_"I was strolling through the park one day in the merry, merry month of May. I was taken by surprise by a pair of lovely eyes, while I was strolling through the park one daaaaaaaaay! _Ratcheeeeet!" Alex sang and danced her way into the med bay. "Ratchet I'm here you said I was supposed to stop by for a check up. Ratchet? Ratchet where are you?" Alex started looking around the med bay to see Ratchet slumped against the wall, his optics blank. She stared in horror to see Charlie sitting on the cot, and a man in a white doctor's coat bending over her leg. She snapped.

"Charlie Ratchet is offline! The base has been invaded, don't worry, I'll save you!!!" She ran and tackled the mysterious man, who yelped as they rolled onto the floor. She landed on top of him and stared in confusion. He had short light brown hair, blue eyes, and looked to be in his mid-thirties. He also looked utterly bewildered.

"Alex, what are you doing?" She gasped, he had Ratchet's voice!

"Wait, what's going on?" She scrambled to get off of him and ran over to Charlie, who gestured carelessly.

"That's Ratchet, Wheeljack invented holoforms so they can look like humans." Alex cringed and looked over at the man, who was brushing himself off. He walked over to her and she was surprised to see he was a good five inches taller than her.

"If you're finished, I need to finish fitting Charlie's new cast." Alex stood stock still, her eyes glazed over. Charlie sighed, she knew exactly what was going to happen. Ratchet got up to get more plaster when he bumped into Alex, who was grinning at him with her hands clasped.

"Ratchet, you're beautiful. Marry me!" She glomped him and he yelped.

"What are you talking about?"

"Ratchet darling we should have a June wedding, a June bride finds true happiness, but I know I'll be happy with you no matter when our wedding is!" Ratchet pulled Alex off him.

"What are you talking about? We are not getting married!"

"Oh Ratchet why must you deny our love? Think of the baby!" Alex started crying and Charlie patted her on the shoulder, she looked over at Ratchet.

"How could you just break her heart like that? What kind of father are you?"

"I'm—she's not—we're not---" Ratchet was having a hard time forming words. "We are not getting married and she is not pregnant!" It was at that moment Optimus Prime entered the med bay followed by Jazz and Bluestreak. They all stopped in shock at his words. They looked to the holoform Ratchet, to Alex, who was crying.

"Ratchet! What do you think you're doing? Why didn't you say anything?" Alex blubbered louder and Charlie patted her on the back. Jazz was looking back and forth from Alex to Ratchet.

"Damn Ratchet, I hope you're gonna pay childcare." He looked gray, if that was even possible, and was mouthing wordlessly as he backed up against the wall.

"Ratchet I'm surprised by you, you were always one of my most responsible warriors, and now I've learned you're running out on a young lady carrying your child." Optimus looked done at Alex. "Don't worry Alex I'll make sure you and the baby have the best possible care. You can live here at the base, I'll have Wheeljack baby proof everything, I'm sure he'll even build you a cradle."

"Oh thank you Optimus, but I'm not sure I can live here and spend every day with the man who broke my heart." Alex sobbed, pulling a tissue out of nowhere. Bluestreak raced out of the room and Jazz tutted. Ratchet finally turned red and walked over to his mech form. Charlie and Alex ran out the door, leaving Ratchet alone with the other autobots. Jazz followed them and picked both of them up. Charlie immediately started laughing.

"I see why the twins mess with Ratch its fun!"

"Be serious Charlie who will help me take care of little Tina or Timmy now?" Alex mock sobbed.

"Oh don't worry Alex, Hound seems like he would be good with kids, maybe he'll help you raise the baby."

"Yeah don't worry lil lady I'll help too."

"Oh thank you Jazz, I always have depended on the kindness of strangers." Alex clasped her hands and put them next to her head, and then batted her eyelashes at Jazz. He laughed and they headed to the human quarters. Bluestreak peaked around the corner with wide eyes. Ratchet managed to impregnate an organic femme? Dear god! He had to tell everyone, no matter that he just heard Alex loudly proclaiming she had to do that more often because she liked teasing Ratchet. He raced down the hallway to the rec room, almost tripping over an invisible Mirage, who became visible, looking incredibly disturbed.

"Mirage! Have you heard? Ratchet impregnated Alex and now he refuses to marry her! She's been crying and saying she'll have to leave the base, because she can't bear to be around Ratchet after he broke her heart. I have to go tell Hound!" Bluestreak raced off to find Hound and tell him what happened, and anyone else he met. Mirage stood exactly where he was, not moving staring at the wall.

"He what?!"


	13. Minor Infractions

Minor Infractions

"Be quiet I can't hear Charlie Gibson talking!" The girls were sitting in their room, hanging out after a day of explaining why Bluestreak should never click yes if asked if he was over 18 on a website.

"Fine I was just asking where that magazine was."

"I said I can't hear Charlie Gibson talking. Oh he's so awesome."

"You know who else is a hot news reporter?"

"Anderson Cooper." Both girls sighed at the same time.

"—a large passenger airplane crashed over the Rocky Mountains yesterday afternoon, so far only half of the passengers have been accounted for. Search teams have started scouting the area….." The TV showed an image of the smoking plane.

"Charlie pause it!"

"Wait what?"

"Pause it then rewind and put it in slow mo." Charlie did as she was told and Alex leaned in closer to examine the screen.

"Did you see that?"

"The plane crashing? Kinda hard to miss."

"No, no rewind it again, look." Alex pointed to the screen. "The explosion came from outside first something hit it! It looks like laser fire."

"Are you sure?"

"I think I've been shot at enough to recognize what is laser fire and what isn't."

"Do you think we should tell the autobots?" Meanwhile in the control room, Ironhide was investigating a new report on the same incident.

"Slag!" He pushed a button and the report paused. He zoomed in on the smoking hull of the plane and growled. "That's decepticon work, I'd recognize it anywhere, I've got to get Prime!" He hurried out of the room and both girls looked at each other.

"I thought they said the decepticons wouldn't publicly go after people." Alex shrugged and pulled her fuzzy socks up.

"Maybe it was an accident." But Charlie raised an eyebrow. "Okay yeah, I hope Optimus can do something." Charlie nodded and sat down next to her. She was wearing jeans and a fuzzy white sweater and her hair flipped over her ears. Alex yawned and pulled her purple sweater down over her black yoga pants. She flipped her braid over her shoulder and they both watched the report, Alex got up and Charlie followed her.

"I think we should tell the autobots."

"Yeah good idea." They walked to the control room and stared up at the huge screen, which was paused on an image of the smoking plane.

"I think they already know." They looked up at the control panel.

"We need to get ladders." Alex nodded in agreement. The door to the control room opened and Optimus, Ratchet, Jazz, and Ironhide entered the room. The autobots nodded to the girls and Ironhide replayed the news cast and the autobots examined the scene.

"You're right Ironhide this is the work of the decepticons."

"But Prime why would the decepticons start attacking humans, especially a human passenger aircraft? It doesn't make any sense."

"I don't know Jazz, but whatever the reason is it doesn't bode well for us." Optimus regarded the screen again. "We must protect the humans, increase surveillance and report any form of suspicious activity, something like this must not happen again." Optimus nodded to the girls, and they knew that was their cue to leave, Optimus was going to discuss strategies, and they were needed here. Charlie and Alex left and walked down the massive corridor.

"Do you think it was Nelly?" Alex shook her head.

"No, he didn't seem to want to hurt us, and he could've hurt a lot of humans in the years he was here, but he didn't, so I don't think so."

"He said he'd grown accustomed to us." Alex shrugged and started walking back to their room, Charlie followed, suddenly the twins came out of nowhere and grabbed them.

"Okay you two need to stop doing that."

"But, Charlie how else will you keep up with us?"

"Electric moped."

"Huh?"

"How was patrol?" She asked, changing the subject.

"Boring, but do you know what we heard the moment we got back?" Sideswipe looked down at Alex. "How's the baby?" The girls started laughing followed by Sideswipe and then Sunny.

"Good, I was going to show Ratch the ultra sounds." Charlie coughed and the twins grinned at her.

"I wasn't under the impression you liked to joke around." Alex shrugged and Charlie spoke for her.

"Actually, she usually does stuff like this all the time back home, she's just been off her game." But Alex objected.

"Nuh uh."

"Yes you do! You and your whole family! I never know what to expect!" The twins were very pleased with this and strolled down the corridor with the girls, who were still arguing. The twins took them into the rec room and set them down on a table.

"You guys need a pool table and air hockey, then this really would be a rec room."

"What are those things?"

"Games humans play, pool is a game with sixteen balls and you use a stick and hit the cue ball with the pool cue and try to knock the other balls into the holes on the side of the table, and air hockey is hockey with air instead of ice, and—" Charlie looked up and saw the confused looks on the twins faces.

"Do you think they have any high grade?"

"I don't know let's check." Alex looked at Charlie.

"Why do they keep on doing that to me?...What's high grade?"

"Don't know. Hey guys what's high grade?" They came back with cubes full of an odd looking pinkish liquid and clinked them together, before taking a swig.

"Energon."

"Oh." They sat and watched the twins knock back a couple cubes back before Wheeljack entered the room, looking very pleased. The twins turned to look at him warily and he held his arms out.

"Good news! Optimus has decided the two of you need holoforms so that you can follow the girls when they are in town! Now if you will just come with me, I can fix you right up." The twins looked at each other warily, then got up and followed Wheeljack out of the room. The girls blinked at each other and sighed. They were left on a table again.

"Yeah we definitely need ladders, I bet this kind of stuff doesn't happen to Sam." Charlie sighed, maybe she could start carrying around a rope ladder. "Okay I've got a plan!" Alex looked at her skeptically, Charlie's plans rarely ended well.

"I don't wanna know."

"You lower me down half way, I jump the rest of the way, get a trampoline, move it under the table then you can jump down, and we can be on our merry way. It's fool-proof!"

"You have a broken leg how the hell are you going to jump off the table?"

"That's why you lower me half way!"

"No."

"Okay I lower you and you jump."

"No."

"Why not? It's a good plan."

"No it's not."

"I don't know I think Charlie might be right it could work." The girls looked behind them.

"Hound!"

"Hi."

"Hound we're stuck on the table go get us a trampoline." He scratched his head.

"What's a trampoline?"

"Nevermind, what have you been doing?"

"I've been taking double shifts." He sat down and sighed. "Feels good to have some down time. How've you been holding up?" The girls frowned when they realized he wasn't talking to them, but at that moment, Mirage appeared in the corner. They stared in surprise as he sat next to Hound.

"I have been unable to turn up anything of value." Hound nodded.

"Yeah I know. Since Blackfire's base has been scrapped, there hasn't been anything else to scout. They got out of there pretty quick, but they didn't leave a trail. Optimus thinks Blitzwing flew them out of there." Mirage nodded and the girls perked at the news.

"They've moved?"

"Blitzwing can fly?" They spoke at the same time and turned and stared at each other. Hound looked down at them kindly.

"Yes, they have moved, Optimus thinks they have relocated to an area you refer to as the 'Badlands'." Mirage nodded.

"Yes. And Blitzwing is a triple changer. He can transform into a tank and a large aircraft able to transport other decepticons." Alex looked pensive and Charlie awed.

"Wow, I didn't know they could do that."

"There are few triple changers, and all of them are decepticons."

"Shucks." Charlie snapped her fingers, and then looked confused at Hound's grin. "What?" He started full out laughing. He gestured to Alex helplessly.

"I heard what you did to Ratchet, he's still twitching." The girls started laughing and even Mirage smiled slightly. News had traveled fast after the initial panic that it had been a joke and the autobots that knew Alex calmed down, Mirage being one of them.

"The twins were right, he is fun to tease." She put on a mock serious face.

"I'm just lucky Optimus has offered to take care of my child, now all I need is for someone to take care of my heart." Alex sighed and fell backwards. Mirage caught her and Alex looked up at him. "How you doing?" She winked at him and batted her eyelashes. He looked bewildered and Charlie started crying she was laughing so hard. He blinked in understanding, and looked vaguely embarrassed. He set her back down on the table and hummed.

"Right, well, back to duty then." He vanished and they watched as the door opened itself.

"I think you embarrassed him."

"Oh he's just busy thinking over my proposition; you know whether or not to become my baby's new daddy."

"I don't know he would always disappear on you when it was his turn for diaper duty." Both the girls started laughing and Hound just looked at them confused.

"It was a joke though right?"

"No I'm dead serious, Ratchet knocked me up and now Mirage is going to marry me, but I'll be so pregnant by the time we get married that it'll will make it hard for the honeymoon. I hope we go somewhere tropical."

"Oh you should make Optimus a god parent, all the autobots can be god parents." Alex nodded.

"Yes you're right. Hound, you can preside over the ceremony." He mouthed wordlessly and Charlie fell off the table. Hound caught her and looked back over at Alex.

"It was a joke?" He squeaked and Alex winked at him. At that moment the twins burst back into the room and went straight for their high grade.

"Well, we're fixed up. We now have holoforms so that we can follow you into that mall thing next time."

"Have you ever shopped with a girl before?"

"No." Sideswipe answered uncertainly.

"Oh this is going to be fun."

"What do you mean?"

"Never mind, you'll find out." They pushed their empty cubes aside and Alex stood up.

"Well, let's see them."

"What?"

"Your holoforms, I want to know what you guys will look like as human." Sunstreaker shook his head.

"No way, those are just when we absolutely _have_ to to follow you in those buildings. I'm not going to look like that if I don't have too." He turned up his nose and Alex quirked an eyebrow.

"Like what?" He gestured to the girls.

"You know…."

"Like humans?"

"Yeah, like humans." She narrowed her eyes.

"So are you saying there's something wrong with how I look?" He looked at Sideswipe, who was busy trying to juggle the empty energon cubes, and looked back at the tiny human femme on the table, glaring at him with her hands on her hips.

"Well, humans are just so small and soft."

"Is there something wrong with that? You're too tall and hard. Besides I bet the real reason you don't want to show me your holoform is that you're not a very pretty human, that's it huh? You're ugly and you're embarrassed about it."

"That's not it at all! I have the greatest most attractive holoform anyone has ever had!"

"I don't know Ratchet's was pretty hot."

"I'll show you!" Sunstreaker's optics dimmed and suddenly standing in front of Alex was a tall man looking the same age as her with tan skin, golden hair, and blue eyes. He ran a hand through his hair, messing it up. He smirked and walked over to her.

"See I told you, I'm the prettiest thing ever." Alex walked around him, he was good looking she'd give him that, tall and well built, but she wasn't going to tell him that.

"I've seen better."

"No you haven't!" Alex ignored him.

"Hey Sides show me your holoform."

"Sure." Sideswipe's optics dimmed and standing next to Sunstreaker was a man the same age and height with messy black hair and the same blue eyes all the autobots had, he had on a red coat and black pants.

"Whoa Sideswipe you're hot."

"Hell yeah you are." The girls stood and stared at Sideswipe, checking him out, Sunstreaker was angry.

"What do you mean he's hot? I'm much better looking than he is! Why aren't you fawning over me?" They hung on Sideswipe and felt his clothes curiously. They felt real.

"You know, for twins you don't look anything alike."

"Well, they didn't in their mech forms either."

"Yeah that's true, I guess you guys would be fraternal twins." Sunstreaker huffed and grabbed the back of Alex's shirt. She turned and he looked down at her.

"You come over here with me." She blinked her green eyes and looked curiously at his yellow jacket.

"Yeah, why's that?" He turned red and she grinned. Wheeljack was good. "Heh, you're cute when you're mad." She patted his cheek and he grabbed her hand.

"You've got quite the grip there."

"Alex you do know you're flirting with him right?"

"What? NOOOO!!!"

"Yeah, you are."

"HA! I'm so beautiful even you have fallen for my charms."

"Shut up, Come on Charlie we're leaving." The girls left the rec room and Charlie was trying to stifle her laughter.

"Shut up! It's not funny." Charlie started laughing in full now.

"Yes it is."

"I was trying to make him mad not come on to him."

"Maybe if you come on to him, you'll make him mad." Charlie couldn't stop grinning.

"Be quiet, or I'll put a wig on you and tell Ironhide you're an intruder."

"Fine you weren't flirting with Sunstreaker, happy now?"

"Yes." They went back to their quarters and Alex sat down at her computer. Charlie looked at her nails.

"Huh, I'm gonna paint em blue!" Alex was sucking on the end of a pen and looked up.

"Do you even have any nail polish?" Charlie nodded and ran into the bathroom. She came back out with a bottle of sparkly blue nail polish. "I see, so what brought this on?" She shrugged and opened the bottle.

"I don't know, I felt like doing something normal." Alex paused typing and Charlie looked over at her curiously.

"What are you doing?"

"E-mailing my brother." Charlie swiveled her head in surprise, almost knocking over her nail polish.

"You are? What are you telling him?" Alex brushed her bangs out of her face and rolled up the sleeves of her sweater.

"That I'm in Denver with you."

"Doing what?"

"Going to college there, since I'm a loose cannon, he bought it and told my parents."

"Huh, I should've thought of that. I didn't tell my parents a thing." She looked down and her hair fell in her face, obscuring her blue eyes. "And you know what; they only tried calling a few times." Alex looked over at her sympathetically but she was painting her nails again. "Oh well, whatever."

"Even if they did call you what would you tell them?"

"Nelly ran away, I'm living with alien robots and my car is planning on taking over the universe." Charlie shrugged. "They would just pat me on the head and say that was nice."

"What happens if they come visit?"

"They won't, they don't." Charlie was quiet for a minute. "I don't mind it you know?" Alex looked at her. "Living here with them, there's always someone to talk to and with so many people around it's…it's nice, you know, to never be lonely. Oh darn, I smudged my nail polish." Charlie got up and went to fix her nails. Alex looked down at her computer, she had a point. Her parents had been scolding her for years for fantasizing and living with her head in the clouds. What would they say if they saw her now?

"Yeah. It's like a big, uh, robot family." They both laughed, and Alex started typing again.

"I wish we weren't so trapped here. I wish we didn't have to worry about the decepticons." Charlie nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, and what happens when they beat them, will they just leave?" Alex froze and looked over at her. She had tried to fit in here, make a home here. What if they left afterward, what would she do?

"They can't leave us, not after everything that's happened…" She got a slightly panicked expression on her face and stared down at her computer. Alex didn't like change, she liked knowing her surroundings and what was in them. It had taken her a long time to get used to living with the autobots, they couldn't just leave and uproot her again!

"Optimus once said that they had decided to make earth their new home, I don't think they would leave the earth, they can't go back to Cybertron, but they might go back to Tranquility…maybe we could go with them? I mean, your parents already think you've moved, and mine wouldn't even notice, so why not, you know go to some place that doesn't have a winter, besides if we lived with them we won't have to pay rent or anything." Charlie and Alex sat in silence, each wondering what would happen once the decepticons were stopped.

"Soundwave, what are you doing here?" Blackfire stood before Soundwave, the triple changers, Wildrider, and Drag strip were standing behind him. He had gained a few new recruits lately, and they didn't know the area well enough yet to patrol.

"Blackfire, too troublesome, termination: imminent." Soundwave fired at Blackfire, he dodged and shot his canons at Soundwave, chaos ensued. Wildrider started firing in every direction, not caring who he hit and Drag strip launched himself at Barricade, who was standing behind Soundwave. Blackfire and Soundwave were very evenly matched, and the other decepticons battled around them, decimating the land.

"You have no creativity Soundwave, this is pathetic." The casseticons ejected and Ravage ran at Blackfire, who fired at him. He dodged and was engaged by Astrotrain, who was trying to shoot down Laserbeak. Blitzwing was grappling with Mixmaster, and Rumble was trying to hack into the base. Buzzsaw launched himself at Blackfire when he threw Soundwave and Blackfire caught him in the air. He was far larger than the casseticon, and he yelled and squirmed. Blackfire looked straight at Soundwave, who straightened himself and regarded him cautiously.

"This ends now Soundwave." And with a twisted look, he took both ends of Buzzsaw and tore him in half. Rumble yelled and all the other casseticons turned to look in horror. Blackfire kept his gaze locked on Soundwave and threw the pieces of the black and yellow decepticon to the side. Soundwave stopped and stared for a moment and glared at Blackfire, his optics burned and he lunged, throwing him off balance and causing him to crash into a tree.

"AARRGG!!" Blackfire started grappling with Soundwave, and the casseticons went on the offensive, each mourning the loss of their brother. Rumble and Ravage started attacking Wildrider, who tried ripping them off, when that didn't work he started firing at them trying to knock them off his shoulder. He succeeded and was about to blast Ravage when Soundwave noticed, he ordered a retreat and they flew away, leaving Blackfire and his troops.

"They just left, what cowards, we showed them!" Blackfire looked at Drag Strip.

"He didn't want to lose another casseticon."

Rumble flew up next to Soundwave.

"Did you plant it on him?"

"Affirmative."

"Good I can't wait till it goes off, that'll teach him for killing Buzzsaw." Soundwave didn't say anything he just flew off back to his base. They flew out of sight just as a large explosion erupted behind them.


	14. Reconciliation

Reconciliation

A few days later found Alex and Charlie in their rooms trying to do laundry in the bath tube. The autobots did not find it fit to equipment their quarters with a washer and dryer.

"I really appreciate modern appliances right about now." Alex was wearing a blue bandana and a white tank top and blue sport shorts, all of which were wet. She scrubbed at her jeans and wiped her forehead. Charlie leaned back and stared at her mass of clothes. She had clipped her hair back and was wearing sweatpants and a blue tank top, their only clean clothes.

"Hey, isn't today September 13?" Charlie looked over.

"I think so, why?"

"Well, it's been over a week since the last time you've been to your house." Charlie jumped up in alarm.

"Oh my gosh, you're right! Skittles!" With that she raced out of the room. Alex blinked and followed her. "Bring the laundry we can do it at my house. Oh my gosh my cat better be alive." Charlie started looking around the base trying to find Sideswipe, luckily her leg had healed and she was now out of her cast, thanks to Ratchet's nifty light treatment thing, which he finally repaired. "Sideswipe! Thank goodness I found you we have to go feed my cat!"

"What?" He just stared down at Charlie, as she was waving her arms wildly in the air. Sometimes he wondered why he was paired with the weird one.

"Transform red, we got stuff to do." Sideswipe transformed and Charlie climbed in, Alex walked over to Sunstreaker, and waited. He did nothing and she started tapping her foot waiting for him to get the hint. Sunstreaker looked down at her.

"Well, come on transform."

"You are not getting inside me with all those dirty things, they smell bad."

"Its laundry and you always complain when I don't ride with you so open up and deal with it." Sunstreaker reluctantly opened his door and Alex got in holding her laundry, he followed Sideswipe and took off for Charlie's house.

Twenty Minutes Later…

"Oh my gosh Skittles I am so sorry it will never happen again." Charlie was petting her cat trying to get her to forgive her, Skittles just rolled over and meowed at Charlie. "You're right it was entirely my fault."

"Charlie I need a hammer."

"What the hell do you need a hammer for?"

"Hitting nails."

"Oh, well okay." Charlie went into her garage to find a hammer, she squeezed past her freezer and went over to the work bench. She found what she was looking for and walked back inside, looking curiously at the beat up black car sitting in there. Her eyes widened and she stopped. She walked back and stared. Nelly was there, looking like he had been hit by a semi. Charlie threw the hammer and ran back into her house.

"Alex, Alex come here quick!" She got up from her place on the floor by Skittles and walked over to her.

"What?" Charlie gestured wildly.

"Come here, I don't know what to do…." Alex followed her curiously into the garage to see Blackfire sitting in his alt form. Her hands covered her mouth in alarm and she shushed Charlie.

"Shhh, be quiet, the twins are right outside." Charlie broke out of her grasp and ran over to Blackfire.

"You came home! I knew the fliers would do the trick!" Both Alex and Blackfire stared at her incredulously, she was really unbelievable sometimes. She kept on going on and on about how this was just like Homeward Bound until she got a better look at Blackfire's injuries.

"Are you okay? What happened?"

"Charlie be quiet the twins are going to hear you, then they'll go into battle mode."

"What are you doing here?" Charlie examined the damage on Nelly. "How did this happen? Are you going to be alright?"

"I will be girl, as soon as you stop talking." Charlie didn't shy away from him, she just grumbled under her breath about him being nicer when he was a girl. She looked back up at him.

"You need help, you look like shit."

"I have all the supplies I need to repair myself here, why else would I come back?" Alex scoffed.

"Sure you have the supplies, but are you actually able to repair yourself?" Charlie remained silent; she looked over when she heard her garage door open.

"Oh fuck." How the heck did that happen? Before the garage door could open all the way Charlie raced outside and tried to distract the twins. "Hey guys what's up?"

"We have to get you girls out of here, there are decepticon traces around here and they're fresh." They transformed and Charlie looked around nervously, praying the neighbors wouldn't notice.

"Oh really, why don't you guys go patrol the area and I'll tell Alex. Okay sound good? Off you go." Charlie tried shooing them away, but it was too late, her garage door was open and Nelly was in full view of the twins. As soon as they saw who was in there, they both took on battle stances, and noted Alex was behind him.

"Step out of the garage now decepticon." Sunstreaker aimed his cannons at him. He couldn't shoot because Alex was in the way; they had to lure him out of there. But Charlie jumped in front of them.

"Are you insane if you shoot you're going to set my house on fire! Besides he's injured and didn't do anything to you." Sideswipe stepped in front of her to shield her from Blackfire, but Charlie just ran around his legs.

"NO! He's really hurt, he's not going to try anything. You can't just shoot him!"

"Step aside Charlie he's a decepticon."

"He's my car and he's injured. We should take him to Ratchet!"

"No, now move." Charlie stepped in front of Nelly, and Alex joined her.

"No! You two are better than this, the autobots are better than this; don't hit a man when he's down."

"Girls move. This is Blackfire, he's one of the most dangerous decepticons in the universe."

"And for five years he didn't harm me, he didn't harm either of us. Five years! Five years and Alex and I are alive, five years, he's probably the only reason I'm alive right now, and I've seen the way I drive. Let Ratchet fix him, then you guys can blast each other to hell and back."

"No he's—"

"I don't care! I don't care about your prejudices I don't care what he's done. I don't! I'm not involved in your war, I don't have your hatreds I don't have a past with any of you, and the only one I do have a past with is Blackfire!" Charlie turned around and opened Blackfire's door, she got in the drivers seat.

"If you're going to kill him, you're going to kill me too." Alex opened the passenger door and sat down next to Charlie.

"Kill them you kill me too."

"Slag it girls! Fine you win, we'll go to the base, and repair that lousy decepti-scum."

"Good, now transform before my neighbors see you. Can you still drive and stuff?" Charlie was now talking to Blackfire.

"I'll be fine." Blackfire pulled out of Charlie's driveway and was led to the autobot base, with Sideswipe in front of him and Sunstreaker behind. Charlie and Alex sat in silence, neither one knowing what to say now.

"So um…how have you been?"

"How do you think?"

"Ah, well okay then…" This was awkward. What do you say when your car is evil and you never noticed? Charlie shook her head. "I really am the most oblivious person in the world."

"Yeah, no argument there."

"I agree, not that it's a bad thing, if you had been more observant than I would have had to kill you." She didn't know either to be happy at her lack of observation skills just then, or ashamed she never saw the signs.

"You never did answer my question; why pose as a teenage girl's car?"

"I had not planned on it."

"The autobots thought you were dead. Will you tell me why? What about how you got here?" Blackfire sighed, both girls were now on the edge of their seats and he knew they weren't about to give up.

"I was a gladiator on Cybertron, long before your kind even existed, that is where I first met Megatron, and he was the only one to ever beat me in the gladiator games. I followed him when he began the war, I quickly rose up through the ranks of the decepticons, Soundwave, Starscream and I became the highest ranking officers. When the all-spark was lost and Megatron left to follow it, Starscream took to leading us. He was a bungler, for every moment of brilliance he had a moment of foolishness, he used terror and his rank to inspire fear and prevent mutiny. Soundwave was no better, using his telepathic abilities to blackmail everyone into submission; they were not made to be leaders.

"When Megatron never came back Starscream decided it was time he truly be made the decepticon leader, he even ordered himself a coronation. It was disgusting! I opposed him, and when I was about to leave and search for Megatron, that is when he struck. He had paid mercenaries to kill me, six of them attacked me at the same time, I was able to kill them all, but I had been heavily injured. I left, letting Starscream think I was dead, if he knew I was alive he would stop at nothing until I was terminated, so I allowed them all to think I was dead, until I could have my chance for revenge.

"I landed on your planet, five years ago as you know. I took the alt mode of a vehicle I saw parked in a lot and I destroyed the car and took its place, at the time I had no idea that the car I destroyed was for sale. You and your family bought me." Blackfire spit out the word like it tasted bad, and Charlie imagined that to someone like Blackfire being bought would be the most disgusting thing in the world.

"I was still injured and decided to heal and lick my wounds while I was with you, and when I was well again I had planned on killing you. Things did not go according to my plan and I stayed with you for longer than I anticipated. When I learned Megatron had been destroyed I knew I had to act. Starscream or Soundwave would try to take control and I could not allow that to happen. The decepticons would be extinct in less then a vorn if either of those two were allowed to lead. I sent out my own message calling all the troops I knew to be loyal to me, and any others who also hated the idea of those two leading. When I received word that they had arrived, well you happened to be with me, and I couldn't have that." The girls were quiet for a moment, letting everything sink in, when Alex thought of something.

"But Optimus said that Megatron was killed seven months ago, if you were here for five years, why didn't you go to him then?" Charlie smiled sheepishly.

"That's when I hit that SUV remember? He was totaled." She pointed to Nelly and he bristled, if that were possible.

"Yes, and lucky for you I still had some of my armor around the cab, or you would have been killed for sure." Charlie winced.

"Yeah…" She trailed off and no one said anything until they arrived at the base to see Optimus Prime's massive form standing in front of the door with his arms crossed. Sunlight glinted off his red and blue form and he walked forward to meet them. The twins must have contacted him and informed him of their arrival. Blackfire stopped with a clunk, and the two girls got out, to be immediately grabbed by Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, who held them protectively and glared suspiciously at Blackfire. He slowly transformed and stood before Optimus. He looked terrible. His black paint was scraped, his cannons were smoldered, and his wiring was sparking all over his joints, but he stood tall.

"Optimus Prime. I wish to speak privately with you." Optimus looked him over and nodded slowly.

"This way." He walked around the base and Blackfire followed him. The twins looked at each other nervously but Optimus held out his hand.

"Peace. Take them inside, I will join you shortly." They nodded and carried the girls inside, where they were intercepted by Ratchet.

"What were you two thinking? You could have been killed!" Ratchet looked at the twins and hit them over the head. "You could have let them be killed!"

"They wouldn't listen to us!" The twins tried defending themselves.

"They don't listen to anyone!" The girls were going to object, but they realized Ratchet was right.

"Ratchet you have to fix him! He's going to die if you don't!" Ratchet didn't say anything to Charlie. "You have to! It's what you do, to heal and preserve life that's your code right? Well Blackfire's life is on the line, he's kept Alex and me alive on multiple occasions. Please Ratchet you have to help him." Ratchet sighed.

"…Alright, where is he?"

"Right here, Ratchet." Everyone turned around and faced Optimus, Blackfire was beside him looking worse for wear; Ratchet scanned him and assessed the damage.

"To the med bay with you, if you don't get fixed up soon, you're going to go off line."

"Not that that would be a bad thing." Sunstreaker muttered under his breath, Blackfire shot him a glare before following Ratchet to the med bay. The doors shut with a bang behind him and for a moment everything was silent. Everyone looked to Optimus for an explanation, but he shook his head.

"Later." And he walked into the control room where Ironhide and Jazz were waiting. The twins didn't move and the girls looked at each other. Alex tapped Sunstreaker's chest.

"Ummm, can we maybe go….somewhere else?"

"Yeah, um let's go to the rec room maybe we can find something to do?" The twins nodded and took the girls into the rec room. When they entered they saw Hound, Bluestreak, and Mirage and they set the girls on the table and went to get some high grade.

"Um…hi?" Charlie cautiously waved at the 'bots, she didn't know how they would react when they found out she brought a decepticon to the base. They weren't as friendly as usual.

"Charlie, why did you bring Blackfire here?" She winced inside, how was she going to explain her inherent trust of one of their sworn enemies?

"I trust him. I've known him for years and he even led me to Bluestreak. He said he didn't want to hurt Alex or me." They looked surprised.

"Why would he care about humans? It doesn't make any sense." But Mirage was watching Alex again and she scooted next to Sideswipe when the twins sat back down. Mirage was nice, but she didn't know what he wanted.

"He's really never harmed either of you?"

"No, not once, I don't think he wants to kill all the humans like Starscream and Soundwave do."

"No good comes from trusting decepticons."

"But…I'd be dead without him."

"Charlie's right, he never hurt us and he kept Motormaster from killing us. I trust him too." Mirage was giving Alex that look again and she was starting to get uncomfortable.

"Do you really?" She looked him in the eye and swallowed, hesitating for only a moment.

"Yes." Hound and Bluestreak looked at them curiously.

"Well, he might not kill you two, but he will certainly kill an autobot." They looked down.

"Yeah, sorry." A pair of arms suddenly wrapped around Alex and lifted her off the ground.

"Sideswipe? What the hell?" He put her down and gave her a puppy dog expression.

"I was giving you a hug. I read that they make people feel better. Here, you have one too." He walked over and bear hugged Charlie, then stood back, proud.

"Now it's all better!" Both girls looked ruffled and gave him a disbelieving look.

"What?" Charlie started laughing, she was becoming really fond of Sideswipe, Alex joined her and started laughing, the autobots stared at them when Optimus walked into the rec room followed by Ironhide and Jazz. Everyone started talking at once and Optimus held up a hand, and they quieted.

"I have made a deal with Blackfire and his faction."

"What?"

"You can't be serious Prime!"

"I am very serious." He came forward and bent down so he was level with Alex and Charlie.

"We have a mutual goal, and have agreed to work together for the time being." The autobots looked outraged, but Optimus turned to Alex and Charlie.

"It was his actions concerning you two that convinced me I could trust him. He has not harmed you or any other human to our knowledge the years he has been here, and he has helped you several times when it was not necessary to do so. I believe he does not have any malicious intent toward the humans." But the autobots were not convinced.

"We can't trust a decepticon Prime, it'll come back to haunt us." Hound nodded.

"I agree with Ironhide, it must be a scheme to overthrow us." But Optimus pinned his gaze on him.

"Do you think I didn't think of that?" He asked quietly, and Hound looked down in shame.

"I'm sorry sir." Optimus nodded.

"Once Ratchet has repaired Blackfire he will leave the base, and I must ask none of you to fire upon him, he will be free to go."

"You can't be serious! We have one of the decepticon leaders and we're just going to let him go?"

"I will explain everything later. All that you need to know is that so long as Blackfire is here he is not to be harmed." The autobots started objecting, but Optimus held up his hand and shook his head. "No arguments."

"Optimus, can we go see Blackfire?"

"No, Charlie I don't think that would be best, why don't you and Alex return to your room and I will inform you when he has recovered. Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, please escort them." The twins grabbed the girls and took them back to their room. Charlie and Alex sat down on their couch.

"What do you think they talked about?"

"They made a deal of some kind."

"Yeah, but about what? What if they turn on each other? I don't want to see any of them get hurt, I love all the autobots, but I can't watch Nelly get hurt, I just can't."

"I'm sure Optimus will tell us."

"Yeah and if he doesn't I'm sure we can weasel it out of Bluestreak." Alex shook her head.

"If he decides not to tell us then we will respect his decision." Charlie stared at her, but stayed quiet.

====---------=====

"Wait, you WHAT?" Blackfire held up his hands and Wildrider stepped back. He had met his faction at their makeshift base in the Badlands, and they had been surprised to see he had been repaired. They had been even more surprised when he told them the autobot's CMO was the one who did it.

"So what, you just walked up to them and they welcomed you with open arms?" Astrotrain scoffed at the idea.

"I sustained heavy damage and none of us are medics, the autobot CMO was the only one that was qualified to repair me, the humans helped me prove this point."

"You held the organics hostage in order to get repairs?"

"Something like that." Blackfire smirked. They relaxed, of course their leader wouldn't make a deal with the autobots.

"I was, of course, interrogated by Optimus Prime, and we discovered something rather….interesting."

"And what's that?" Blackfire looked over at Breakdown and went over to the control panel and pushed a button. An image came onto the screen and all the decepticons looked on in shock.

"This."

Two weeks later…

"Do you think he's alright?" Charlie had been worried about Blackfire for some time now. She was in her room with the twins when Ratchet had repaired him. He left right after that, without giving her a chance to say anything to him.

"Who?" Alex looked up from her book, and saw Charlie staring blankly at the TV in their room.

"Nelly, do you think he got attacked again when he left, he never said good-bye."

"Did you really expect him to?"

"Well no, but still..."

"I'm sure he's fine, and if he's not then maybe the autobots will forgive you."

"You were in on it too. They really haven't been as friendly as normal….Do you think…?" Charlie panicked, what if she made enemies out of all the autobots?

"Come on." Alex grabbed Charlie's hand and pulled her towards the door. But it wouldn't open. She frowned and they switched it to manual, but it was locked, from the outside.

"They locked us in! Why would they lock us in?!"

"I don't know! Did we do something wrong?" They looked at each other helplessly. Guess the autobots were really mad.

"Wait!"

"What?"

"Wheeljack built these doors, there's a chance we can get them to explode then we can get out!" For once Charlie was happy everything around Wheeljack had a tendency to explode.

"Okay how do we get them to explode?"

"I don't know!" Charlie exclaimed. "Usually when something of Wheeljack's explodes he's around or it's by my face and I lose an eyebrow, I wonder if he does that on purpose?" Alex ignored Charlie's last statement.

"Okay got it." Alex grabbed Charlie and pushed her face up to the doors.

"What the hell are you doing?" Charlie shooed Alex away and got out of her grasp.

"You said Wheeljack's things explode in your face." Charlie struggled out of her grasp. It would have been her luck that the doors really did explode at that moment.

"Nevermind, let's find the control panel." They felt along the walls until Alex found a panel.

"I found it." They opened it and a lot of wires and buttons met their eyes.

"Okay, we just need a……pool stick!" Alex blinked. There was one in the corner, Hound found it and thought it was a great gift. She grabbed it and upended the couch. Alex helped her push it near the door and they crouched behind it.

"Okay!" Charlie extended the pool stick and with it began pulling out the wires and hitting all the buttons. The door made odd noises and the wires sparked. They sped up the button pushing and suddenly, the door exploded and blew right off its hinges. Both girls ducked and covered their heads. They stood up cautiously to see smoke everywhere and the remains of their door outside in their corridor.

"Wow."

"Yeah, everything Wheeljack makes _does _explode!" They peeked around the corridor, but there was no one guarding their door. They walked around cautiously, their footsteps echoing down the empty halls.

"Oooooo spooky." Charlie started humming the theme song to a horror movie.

"Charlie shut up!"

"Fine spoilsport." The girls looked around the base trying to find the autobots. "Where are they? They never leave the base unguarded."

"I don't know, let's try the control room." Alex and Charlie headed into the control room intent on figuring out what was going on. "They're not here either." The door slid open and they walked inside. It was empty, but an image on the screen made them stop. Optimus Prime was locked in battle with Blackfire, and it was recent. The girls looked at it in horror.

"No, they're fighting them. Why didn't they tell us? Why did they lock us in?"

"They must really be mad." They looked up at the control panel; it was fifteen feet above them. "How do we get up there?" Charlie shrugged.

"Why do you want to get up there?"

"So we can see what's happening! And we might be able to contact them!" Charlie looked up.

"So, how do we get up there?" Alex frowned, then punched the air triumphantly.

"I know! That ladder looking thing in Ratchet's med bay!" Charlie snapped her fingers.

"Yeah, I remember seeing that thing; it's for when he has to hoist an autobot's limbs up!"

"Let's go get it!" They returned an hour later lugging a ladder between them. It was heavier then they thought, and they had to stop multiple times to take breaks.

"Okay, we set it up against the wall first, then we move it over." They heaved and finally got it against the wall, after it hit Charlie twice on the head.

"Now just move it over….easy now…" They carefully maneuvered it so that it leaned against the control panel and steadied it.

"Yes! Finally!" Alex held on to the ladder and Charlie made her way up carefully. She reached the top and gave Alex a thumbs up. Alex climbed up and she and Charlie walked to their normal place on the control panel. She looked up at the screen and watched the battle. Ironhide was tearing into a con she'd never seen before. He was brown with black legs and a purple body and a large rifle. Charlie looked back at the screen and saw Optimus battling Blackfire, she got up and started walking around the control panel, she didn't want to watch this part. She headed back to where the ladder was, she thought about leaving, but decided against it. Charlie sighed and sat down again watching the battle, Breakdown had just shot Hound in the chest. She leaned back against the ladder, it moved and she almost tumbled off the control panel.

"Shit!" Charlie regained balance and leaned over to look at the ladder, she knocked it down. "Oops."

"What happened?"

"I um kind of, well the ladder fell over."

"You knocked the ladder over?"

"I didn't say that!"

"And now we're stuck up here! Good going Charlie."

"Sorry?" Alex sighed and sat back down. They'd just have to wait for the autobots to get back, but from what they were watching, who knew when that would be. They sat down and watched as the autobots subdued the decepticons, and bound them in energy cuffs. Alex stretched and accidentally hit a button. The screen changed to show CNN and Charlie groaned.

"Alex!"

"What, they captured them."

"What do you think they're going to do with them?" Alex shrugged.

"Interrogate them? I don't know, but not anything too bad, Optimus is too nice." Charlie nodded.

"Yeah." They sat back and watched the news, their autobot friends were okay and they had won the battle. Now all they had to do was wait for them to get back. After a few hours the girls were dozing when they heard the door slide open. They sat up and rubbed their eyes.

"Optimus?" He strode in and looked at them in shock. To their surprise a familiar black mech walked in behind him.

"Nelly?" He smirked.

"Girls."


	15. Turbulence

A/N: Thank you Kage oni shinobi, PwnKage and especially precious92 (who sent us the nicest review we've ever received) for reviewing. You made our day! And thank you to everyone who has been altering and favoriting our fic. Feel free to review when you do. It's good for you!

Turbulence

"You must stay where I can see you. Don't go past that outcropping, and don't go near those trees." Alex sighed.

"I know. I'll stay close, I just wanted to feel the sun for awhile." Mirage smiled at her.

"Understandable." She walked a few yards away near a group of large rocks and crawled up on them. She laid back and put her arms behind her head, letting the sun shine on her, and sighed. She needed to get away from the base, the tension there was pliable. She used her hands to shield her from the sun, she wasn't allowed to wander too far from the base in fear of the decepticons. Mirage was on guard today and hadn't let her out of his sight. Hound was on guard yesterday and wasn't near as protective. She sighed. Since their temporary alignment with the decepticons, everyone was tense and on edge. They stayed in a valley just below autobot headquarters. They were forced to stay nearby in order for the autobots signature to mask their own. Otherwise Soundwave would come calling before they were ready.

Soundwave, he as the reason the decepticons were hiding with the autobots at all, the reason everything was moving forward at such a rapid rate. If Soundwave had not tried to kill Blackfire, then her and Charlie never would have brought him back to the base and Blackfire would have never made that deal with Optimus Prime. The autobots and Blackfire's decepticons would work together in order to stop Soundwave and Starscream. A fight was staged in order to fool anyone watching into thinking that Blackfire's team was now off the playing field, they would wait until Soundwave made his move and then surprise him with their new alliance.

Alex sat up for a moment, she liked the idea, she really did. She still didn't understand why the autobots and the decepticons hated each other, Nelly had been a silent protector of Charlie and herself for years, she now understood how Charlie had survived this long with her bad luck. Blackfire had kept them from harm, and now the autobots were trying to keep every human on the planet from harm. That's why she liked the idea of them working together, because even a temporary alliance could transform into a permanent one. Then their pointless war could be put to rest.

The wind picked up and Alex slid off her rock to the ground and looked up, shielding her eyes. Two very large jets were landing a hundred yards away. She looked back at Mirage to see that he winked out of view.

"Get out of sight!" She jumped when she heard his voice and ducked out of sight. The roaring become louder and she covered her eyes from the wind as Astrotrain and Blitzwing landed. She ducked and watched as they transformed and turned to head down to their makeshift base. Astrotrain nudged Blitzwing and nodded.

"Hey look, no one guarding the auto-scum's front door. Wanna have some fun?" They both laughed and stepped closer to Alex's hiding spot. Astrotrain stepped on a boulder near her and it shattered. She gave a little shriek as pieces hit her face. They both stopped.

"Hey look, a human. Hah, a human could even get into the autobot base. We should put a bomb on it and send it in. I could just see the looks on their faces when it—" Blitzwing cut him off when he kneeled and bent toward her. Alex looked at him warily.

"Hey, it's you, I thought I lost you! How did you get over here? Did you follow me?" Alex looked at him like he was an idiot.

"No, I live here!"

"Behind a rock?" Alex face palmed.

"No I live in the autobot base."

"But you're my human. I know! You infiltrated the autobots in order to gain information to use against them, good job, that's why you're my strategist."

"Uh, yeah sure whatever you say." Alex mentally shrugged, if it kept her from getting stepped on. Suddenly Blitzwing picked her up by the collar of her shirt and plopped her in his hand.

"Hey!"

"What?"

"Don't do that!" Astrotrain grinned and grabbed her from Blitzwing's hand in the same manner.

"What, this?" Blitzwing snatched her back.

"This is my human get your own."

"Maybe I wanna play with her too." He reached for her again but froze. A second later Mirage became visible behind him, his gun to his head.

"I think you should leave." Astrotrain paused for a moment, before a smirk appeared on his face.

"Maybe I will, at least I have a souvenir. Hey, Blitzwing catch." Astrotrain tossed Alex over to Blitzwing, who caught her with both hands and brought her to his chest. Mirage turned to Blitzwing, keeping his rifle aimed at Astrotrain.

"Put her down now." Astrotrain just smirked, taunting Mirage.

"I don't think so, we found her, so we get to keep her." Blitzwing looked down at Alex, who was staring at the conflict with wide eyes. Bruises were forming where he caught her. He frowned. She wouldn't last long around Astrotrain. That wouldn't be good, no good at all he needed her, and Astrotrain wasn't going to lay his hands on his strategist.

"Here you go." Mirage and Astrotrain stared at Blitzwing with huge optics as he set Alex on the ground.

"Huh? What'd ya do that for?" As he argued with Blitzwing, Mirage hurriedly scooped up Alex and disappeared. He carried her to the entrance of the base and put her down.

"Get inside, tell whoever you see first to comm. me." She frowned, but complied when Astrotrain saw her and started toward the base. Mirage intercepted him and she ran inside. She ran into Bluestreak's shin and fell to the ground.

"Bluestreak!" She regained her footing. Bluestreak stared down at her confused.

"Alex?"

"Astrotrain and Blitzwing are at the entrance with Mirage, he said I was supposed to tell the first person I found to comm. him." Bluestreak picked her up and she watched as his optics flickered.

"Alright." He walked down the hallway and she turned around in his hand.

"Where are we going? Shouldn't you go help Mirage?" She didn't feel right leaving him out there, though hopefully Blitzwing would contain Astrotrain. Or maybe he wouldn't. She got a cold feeling inside.

"No, Bluestreak, we have to go back! They're way bigger than him!" He gave her a comforting smile but didn't stop.

"Its okay, Ironhide and Hound were close to base, they've been informed, they'll be to him in no time. He instructed me to take you to Optimus to discuss additional security measures for you." Alex gaped.

"What? No, he's overreacting, I don't need additional security!" She sighed as they entered the control room, where Optimus and Wheeljack were observing the screens.

"Bluestreak, Alex. It's under control, I informed Blackfire." Alex brightened.

"So they stood down?" He nodded.

"Yes, they have returned to their base, Mirage is alright." She sighed in relief and Bluestreak passed her to Optimus. She sat in his hand and looked up into his bright optics.

"Unfortunately, you will no longer be allowed outside of the base unless necessary." She slumped, though it was no less than she expected.

"Yeah, I figured. But, it was Astrotrain really. Me and Blitzwing are cool." They peered at her in confusion.

"Regardless, something like this cannot happen again, they could have seriously injured you." She just nodded and Optimus smiled.

"Don't worry, this won't last much longer." Alex perked up, and Optimus set her down, she just waved and left the control room. When the doors shut her shoulders visibly slumped, Optimus was right this wouldn't last much longer, the only problem was she didn't know how it was going to end. She didn't know if the autobots would be alright, she didn't know if they would win, and if they did win, and they left she didn't know if she would be alright. She walked into her room and saw Charlie sprawled upside down on the couch writing in a notebook.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm writing Nelly a letter to remind him of all the good times we've shared, and how there will always be a place in my garage for him. I'm hoping it will be so touching that he'll come home and we can be one big happy family again."

"With just the two of you?"

"No, Skittles would be there too, duh."

"Charlie, your cat and your alien car don't count as a family."

"Of course they do. Family is supposed to be the people you come home to everyday, those two are the people I come home to." Alex let it drop. Charlie's family really didn't know how to be a family, so if Charlie thought her cat and Nelly were her family, then why not?

Charlie flipped down on the couch and righted herself. Alex sat next to her and put her hair back, before turning on the T.V.

"Charlie?"

"Alex?"

"I hate this."

"Me too."

"What do we do?" Alex turned to face her, her eyes troubled. She was twisting her crystal necklace unconsciously. It had been cold today, and she shifted so she could pull down the sleeves of her purple sweater. Charlie had stayed inside, and was clad in a black t-shirt and jeans. She shrugged.

"What can we do? We're the weak humans here that they have to protect. If we get in the way we get hurt." Alex sighed and crossed her arms there had to be something she could do. Maybe Wheeljack could teach her how he always gets things to explode and she could go into sabotage. Alex stood up.

"I'm going to the target range. I'll see you later."

"Kay." Charlie sealed up her letter and then stopped what was Blackfire's mailing address 'Care to temporary base outside of hidden autobots base'?

"Well, damn." She sighed and tossed the letter on the table. It probably wasn't a good idea to deliver it by hand. Maybe she was wrong; maybe they could do something to help.

Two Hours Later…

"So what are you guys going to do, just going to draw a line down the middle of the hill or something?"

"No of course not." Charlie and Alex were in their room with the twins, who were in their holoforms, trying to teach them to play poker.

"Then how are you guys and the d-cons going to play nice?"

"The area is going to be sectioned off."

"You told us that."

"Yes, but there won't be a line or anything, they're just not allowed to go near a five hundred yard radius of the base unless given permission, or it's Blackfire, he's got clearance." He said the last part with a subtle bitterness Charlie did not want to comment on. Instead she changed the subject.

"Full house." Sunstreaker looked angry as Charlie took her winnings and dealt a new hand.

"I still can't believe Prime made a deal with those scum." Charlie mentally sighed so much for trying to get off the subject. She didn't like the way they talked about Blackfire.

"But isn't this a 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' kind of thing'?"

"But those tin cans are still my enemy." They took the cards and Sunstreaker leaned over Alex to see her cards. She sighed.

"You're going to lose anyway. If this was strip poker, you'd already be naked."

"You want me to be naked?" Sunstreaker smiled and flipped his hair before winking at Alex. She leaned in.

"Why yes, yes I do." He blinked and she leaned back, triumphant.

"Three of a kind." Sideswipe and Sunstreaker sighed. They lost every game. Charlie leaned back into her chair and looked at the twins contemplatively.

"You two need different names when we're in public, what will we call you?"

"Sunny!"

` "No!" Sideswipe was grinning at Sunstreaker, who shook his fist, his blonde hair falling in his face.

"I like Sunny." He leaned back and stared at Alex.

"Really?" She shrugged and inched away and he tried to sit with her on her chair. These two had no notion of personal space.

"Yeah, umm, can you get off of me?" He was halfway sitting on her, and grabbed her hair.

"Yours is softer than mine, not fair!" She rolled her eyes and pushed him off her, onto the floor.

"Yeah, girl's hair is usually softer than a guy's because we use conditioner." He perked up.

"Conditioner? Where can I get some?"

"Why, you can't use it." He pouted and crawled over and drug himself over to the couch, which was facing away from them. He peeked over the edge to see Alex still sitting there and ducked down again.

"What about Sid and Sul?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"No."

"Fine, fine come up with your own names, do you want to play Sunny or are you gonna keep sulking?"

"No I don't want to play anymore." Sunstreaker turned around and started flipping through the channels. Alex sat down next to him and snatched the remote out of his hand.

"Hey!" They started fighting and Charlie started teaching Sideswipe to play speed.

"Are we going to be stuck in our room for however long it takes for Soundwave to attack? Are we not allowed to leave at all?"

"We have to be with you if you leave your room, and we'll be with you in your room until your doors are fixed. How did you guys blow up your doors anyway?"

"Trade secret. How long is it going to take to fix them?" They shrugged.

"However long it takes for Wheeljack to make a new one. He's got a long list of things to take care of. Although if its for Charlie he'll make it a priority." Charlie stared at him confused.

"Why?"

"You don't know?"

"Know what?" Sideswipe patted her on the head.

"I'll explain it when your older."

They were quiet until Sunstreaker and Alex finally settled on HBO, which was playing Star Wars: _The Empire Strikes Back_. They went and sat with them, the girls were on the edge of their seats excitedly watching the movie.

"Oooooooo."

"Who's that green guy?"

"Yoda he is."

"Strong with the force he is."

"Train Skywalker he will."

"Why are you two talking like that?"

"Fun it is."

"Lightsaber I want."

"Badass we would be."

"Stop talking like that!"

"Shut up Sunstreaker should." He pulled at his hair and Alex opened her mouth, but he slapped his hand over her mouth and she pulled at his shirt. Sideswipe and Charlie ignored them and kept watching the movie. Just then there was a knock and Sideswipe and Sunstreaker's holoforms disappeared. Alex fell on the floor looking stunned and Charlie helped her up and went to see who it was.

"Hello girls."

"Heya Wheeljack what's up? Are you here to fix our door?"

"Yes I am." Wheeljack lifted a new door to measure and the girls skittered around them. Charlie heard Sideswipe mutter 'I told you so.' She still didn't understand what he was talking about.

"I don't wanna get stuck in there; we'll come back when you're done." The twins picked them up and walked down the corridor, where they ran into Ironhide.

"What are you doing here? You two are supposed to be in your room."

"Don't worry Ironhide we'll take care of them."

"I don't like this." Ironhide grumbled.

"Don't worry Hide we'll be fine, and don't worry about anything, you guys can take care of it." Ironhide continued to grumble but let the twins go on their way with the girls.

"He's going to be in a bad mood for awhile isn't he?"

"Probably, nobody really likes that scum hanging around the base."

"But Nel-Blackfire's group doesn't seem as bad as the other ones." Charlie received a glare from the twins. "Well they don't at least Blackfire doesn't seem all that bad." She mumbled, they really didn't like her defending Nelly.

"They're all pit spawned slaggers." Alex and Charlie looked at each other knowing what the other was thinking. They're would never be peace between the Autobots and the Decepticons.


	16. Starting the Fire

Starting the Fire

Hound leaned heavily on the opening to the mineshaft that held their base, he had just done a double patrol and was exhausted. Decepticons were overrunning this planet, and the autobots were a very small minority now of the transformers here. And more were still coming. He put in his security code and the doors opened. He walked slowly down the empty corridors, his footsteps echoing loudly in the silence. Things had not been going well at base. The decepticons they were neighboring were up to something, and they utterly isolated themselves to keep from fighting. Bluestreak was still in the med bay from their last 'disagreement'.

"Optimus to Hound, report to the control room."

"Affirmative, on my way." He had not seen the two girls since Alex had been taken by Blitzwing, though she claimed she wasn't harmed, it made all the autobots nervous, and the girls were now confined to their rooms and had to be escorted if they were going to the med bay or the control room. As far as he heard, they were not happy. Everyone stayed lighthearted around them, trying to mask the aura of dread that was slowly seeping through their ranks. They were outnumbered, and these decepticons played by no rules. Megatron might have exercised caution to keep hidden from the humans, but Starscream couldn't care less. This was his triumph, and that was all he was concerned about. So they were unaware of the true danger of their missions, after all, they shouldn't be there at all. None of them should have been here, it wasn't their world and they have no right to bring their war here. If the war continued Earth would end up exactly the same as Cybertron, he knew it.

He felt bad enough that none of the children would ever have a normal life again. Sam and Mikaela were out of the action now, and had time to cope with what they had seen and done. Though he knew from what he had heard from the others that their fear of the decepticons ran deep. Charlie fit in and Alex was getting there too, but he feared for those two. Alex had now been captured twice and he feared she would not be lucky enough to survive a third time. She had no warning or introduction to their race, her first encounter with their kind had been kidnapping and torture. He shook his head. He knew mechs whose servos were forever glitched because they were tortured at the hands of decepticons, but Alex survived and recovered, and that alone was a credit to her race. Still, according to Charlie a part of her seems to have died, and she's hiding a darkness in her now that you can sometimes see in her eyes.

And the infamous twins had become their guardians. Hound had feared at first that they would not be careful around them and accidentally hurt them. Unfortunately it was a job they were unused to and the girls were captured, and luckily, survived. They had taken their jobs more seriously after that. Charlie and Sideswipe hit it off right away, but Sunstreaker still had not earned Alex's trust, and he could see it was starting to wear on him. He wanted her to trust him now, but she would not be swayed. Optimus had told them it was a good sign, that he was becoming a well-rounded individual, learning to take care of someone else and care about them like he did Sideswipe. They were often at odds with each other, and he wasn't the only one that noticed. Mirage in particular was irate at him, believing he did not care enough about the femme to guard her. Hound smiled. Mirage too, had learned to care for another. He never showed his normal haughty self around her, he seemed only to care for her safety. He was glad his friend had learned to care for a human, they were a very fascinating race, and the green transformer liked them very much. Maybe, if they survived this, he could explore this planet more, and learn more about its inhabitants.

He looked up at the thin vent in the ceiling and thought he could hear the breeze through it. Soon, it wouldn't be long now.

Blackfire paced around the room in the autobot base he'd taken as an office. He was getting anxious for something to happen, Soundwave would attack soon he knew it, after all he did kill one of his children and if that look on his face told him anything it was that Soundwave wanted his head on a platter. He paused from his thoughts when he heard a loud noise, and he opened the door to see his troops fighting in the hallway.

"What the hell are you slaggers fighting about?" He glared at them, demanding their attention, and Blitzwing let go of Onslaught and stood up straight. "Well?"

"I was just teaching these punks a lesson boss."

"At least we're not the ones with a squishy fetish."

"Shut your yap before I shut it for you!" He watched as Blitzwing argued with Onslaught, Vortex and Blastoff, he was sick of this.

"Enough!" They were silenced immediately. "Blitzwing, I will not have you starting fights over humans or anything else, none of you are any good to me if you are injured." Onslaught, Blastoff and Vortex snickered at Blitzwing. "And you three," He shot a glare at them. "You may not have been in my command long enough to understand that the only reason we have this current alliance with the autobots is because of those two humans. Because we never harmed them, Optimus Prime and the autobots trusted us enough to let us into the sanctuary of their base. And look at all the information we have gained about them." The decepticons looked at each other. So, not killing the humans had been part of his plan anyway. Nobody said anything but they were secretly relieved. They had been afraid their boss was a human sympathizer.

"Fine, fine. We're gonna go get us some energon." Vortex, Onslaught, and Blastoff left the room and Blitzwing clenched his fists. Blackfire put a hand on his shoulder.

"Calm down. It won't do any good to fight them." The purple and tan decepticon turned toward him.

"Yeah? Well I think someone oughta put them in their place." Blackfire shook his head. He understood where he was coming from.

"No, leave them be. Alex is safe with the autobots." Blitzwing jerked in surprise.

"What? I-----" But Blackfire interrupted him.

"Never mind. Get back to your duties." He watched him leave and went back to his control panel. It was only a matter of time.

Charlie was lying on her bed staring up at the ceiling, everyone was getting ready for when the decepticons attacked, and she wasn't too sure what was going to happen. Alex kept on saying there was no way the autobots would take them into a battle and she had to agree. Going into battle with them probably wasn't going to happen. But she didn't know what was going to happen if the battle happened here, and even if it didn't what if one of her friends was injured or worse, killed? She didn't want to think about that.

"Hey, you still out there?" She heard some shuffling and Alex opened her door. She was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt. Her hair was up and her face was pale, her green eyes illuminated by the gold eye shadow she was wearing. She looked nervous.

"Yeah?" Charlie waved her hand. She yawned and Alex leaned against the doorframe. Charlie rolled over and pulled down her jeans and adjusted her blue Doors t-shirt.

"Nothing, I was just wondering what you were doing."

"Oh, just thinking." She nodded.

"Yeah, me too." They were both quiet.

"It's the calm before the storm."

"I know, something bad is going to happen." They both turned when they heard footsteps out in the corridor. They didn't stop, and they turned away. It wasn't the twins.

"I don't want to wait while they go fight, but we'd just get in the way." Alex sighed and blew at her bangs.

"Yeah I know. They'd just get hurt trying to protect us." Alex turned around and left the room, she couldn't stay still. All day she had been pacing, trying to keep her energy down. If she stopped moving, she would probably explode and run all over the place, she had to keep herself under control. She hated being helpless more than anything, and she hated this entire situation. Charlie sighed and decided to leave her to her thoughts.

"I'm leaving, don't lock me out." She headed towards the door, leaving Alex sitting on the couch, she didn't want to stay in their room any more maybe she could find one of the autobots and learn what exactly was happening.

"Yeah sure." Alex answered distractedly; she had to think of something she could do.

Charlie made her way around the base, looking for Sideswipe or anyone of that nature, she passed by Wheeljack's lab and looked inside he was sitting at his desk hunched over what looked like blue prints. She heard Ironhide grumbling in the distance and stepped into Wheeljack's lab, if Ironhide found her he'd barricade her in her room.

"Hey Wheeljack." He turned around, surprised.

"Charlie! What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be out of your room, something bad could've happened to you."

"Yeah I know Jack, but I've been sitting in my room for too long. I wanted to get out, besides nothing's going to happen to me with you around." Wheeljack seemed flustered for a moment, before regaining control of himself.

"Well." He coughed, Charlie didn't know that they could cough. "I'm glad you came anyway, I made something for you." Oh crap she panicked.

"Um that's okay Wheeljack you didn't need to do that, you always get me stuff and I never get you anything, so it's okay, you don't need to give me anything in fact I insist you don't." Wheeljack stared at Charlie as she frantically shook her head and waved her arms trying to get him to take back his gift.

"It's not going to explode."

"I never said that, I just meant that it wasn't fair that I never get you anything and you should really stop giving me things or else I'll get the wrong impression." Suddenly Wheeljack's holoform appeared in front of her. He brushed the hair that had fallen out of her pony tail out of her face. She just stood there stunned as he whispered to her.

"It won't explode Charlie, I promise." She just nodded, and he kept going. "I made it to keep you safe." She stared at him partly entranced, partly confused. Was Sam right? Did he really _like_ like her? He seemed slightly nervous and she wondered why.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know much about this kind of thing, I'm mean, I've researched it and everything, but I've never actually tried it and----" Realization dawned on Charlie and she smiled slightly. Why not? The earth might be ending any day now…

"Here, I'll help you." She grabbed the front of his coat and pulled his taller form toward her. His blue eyes were captivated with her own as she pulled his face down to meet hers………

Alex was trying to keep herself occupied, she already beaten solitaire on her computer ten times, baked a tray of cookies and was now attempting to walk all the way around the room on her hands. She had made it half way when Charlie walked into the room, she kicked her legs down and turned to face her. She was carrying two guns and had a odd look on her face.

"Hey what's up with the guns?" She didn't say anything at first. "Charlie!"

"Hey Alex what's up?" Alex sighed, Charlie must've hit her head again. "Is something wrong you look like your head's in the clouds."

"Nope I'm great! Oh look what Wheeljack made us!"

"Guns? He made us guns?"

"Yeah, well not really but yes he kind of did."

"Huh?"

"They're apparently null ray guns, they won't kill anyone. I think Jack was afraid we'd accidentally shoot an autobot, but they will temporarily shut down anything mechanical, meaning we can knock out any d-cons that come our way." Alex took the weapon eagerly, examining it enthusiastically. Finally, something useful.

"Awesome, any safety device?" Charlie nodded and pointed to a little switch on the side. Alex winced when she saw it wasn't on, it would be just like Charlie to accidentally shoot herself. She put both weapon's safeties on and strapped on the holster Charlie gave her. She sighed.

"I feel so much better now. At least I can do something if someone attacks us or the autobots." She beamed and Charlie stared.

"Wow, you really do feel better. Remind me to give you a gun whenever you're feeling blue." Alex put on a zip up hoodie over her shirt and holster and went back on her computer, looking up combat techniques. Charlie sighed. She was single-minded. If there was going to be a fight she was going to be in it, end of story. Of course, with their luck, they'd end up in the middle of it anyway, that's just the way it was. Soon after, the twins came in. They heard them before they saw them, and the two handsome autobots appeared in their holoforms just inside the room. They noticed the girls' new additions immediately. Sunstreaker walked up to Alex and reached over to pull her null ray from her holster. He examined it curiously.

"Wheeljack?" She nodded and crossed her arms. He put his hands up. "Alright, sorry." He stuck it back in her holster and stretched, pulling her toward the couch. She followed him reluctantly. "I could really use a recharge but being in this new low-power state that Wheeljack configured works too." He saw the girl's confused looks and elaborated. "We can use our holoforms to put our normal bodies into a low-power state to conserve energy, since, you know, being human doesn't use up much." Alex just shrugged indifferently and Sideswipe sat down with Charlie at the table.

"Okay Sides I'm gonna teach you an important part of earth society….one two three four I declare a thumb war." Charlie and Sideswipe continued to battle it out as Sunstreaker slept and Alex researched ways to take out a robot. Suddenly an alarm sounded throughout the base. The twins jerked up and looked at each other, silently communicating with each other. Alex stood up calmly.

"Alright it's go time, Charlie get your gun." Charlie shrugged on a jacket before strapping on her null ray.

"We have to get you two out of here." The twins' holoforms disappeared and the girls went out to meet them. They transformed into their alt forms and the girl's waited for them. Before they got in their respective guardians the girls bumped fists and nodded to each other. Alex opened the yellow Lamborghini's door and put on her seat belt.

"Alright let's do this thing."

"Everyone to their stations! Soundwave has been sighted!" Optimus Prime stood tensely in front of the control panel, the screen was showing Soundwave and the constructicons flying through the sky heading towards their base.

"Are the girls secure?"

"Yes sir the twins have evacuated them."

"Good. Is Blackfire's group ready?"

"They're on their way." Optimus nodded and was about to give Jazz an order when all the lights in the base went off. Optimus rushed to the computer and tried punching in commands, nothing happened and he tried to reach the others over the autobot radio frequency and was met by the sound of static. He slammed his fist on the control panel.

"Slag it nothing's working!" Jazz stood still for a second.

"He's shut down the computers, radios, everything. He's trying to blind us."

"He can try." Optimus strode out of the room. "But he won't succeed. Head out to the entrance we have to be there to greet our guests." He and Jazz transformed and were followed outside by Ironhide, Bluestreak, Hound, and Wheeljack. Mirage was their ace and was keeping an invisible surveillance, while Ratchet and Bumblebee secured and hid all autobot secrets that would be fatal if the decepticons gained knowledge of them. A couple of Wheeljack's more ambitious experiments and all information about the secure channels that still had important information regarding autobots still possibly alive among them. Things they couldn't let Soundwave get a hold of.

"Prime." Blackfire, Blitzwing, Astrotrain, Drag strip, and Dead End met them outside. The other decepticons waited for Blackfire's signal, they were serving as emergency backup. They stood in a clearing near the entrance of the base. They could see him now, and he was coming fast. Optimus could sense his fury, and oddly enough, felt a stab of pity. He was avenging his creation, his casseticons were like his children to him. Would he not do the same? No, there was no time for thoughts like these, no matter his loss, he would feel no such pity for them for if he could he would kill them all. They could not show him any mercy, for he would show them none. He looked at his fellow autobots and his unlikely allies and closed his optics. This was it, to the death. He could feel it. This would be resolved once and for all.

"Autobots, transform!"

"Sideswipe…do you think everything is going to be okay?" Charlie shifted in her seat and double checked her gun. She had a bad feeling about this entire thing.

"Course it'll be, just you wait Jazz will probably have a party organized by the time we come back."

"…Yeah." Sideswipe could sense her unease.

"It will be fine kid just you wait." She nodded and looked out Sideswipe's back window to see Sunstreaker and Alex right behind them. She pushed a button on Sideswipe's console and radioed Alex.

"Hey, you guys okay?"

"Yeah, I guess." She could sense Alex's nervousness and frowned.

"What's wrong?" Sunstreaker's voice was heard over Alex's.

"Nothing, she's just being paranoid, don't pay attention to her." Charlie glanced at Sideswipe's console in suspicion.

"Paranoid of what?"

"Oh, she thinks this is a bad idea, but I keep telling her that nothing will happen when I, the most amazing, beautiful autobot in the universe, am here protecting her." Charlie could hear Alex's exasperation.

"Something's wrong!"

"No it's not! Just relax and enjoy the ride." Charlie shook her head and turned it off.

"Hey, what do you think? I'm kinda freaked out too." Sideswipe sighed.

"War is unpredictable. Optimus sent us with you as a precaution, and he wouldn't have done it unless something was going down." Charlie was quiet for a moment.

"I'm sorry you have to be watching us. You two would rather be fighting. I can tell, so can Alex." She shifted and moved her null ray gun so that it didn't poke her leg. She tightened her hair band and looked at the radio where she heard his voice.

"Sunny and I are fighters, but our job is to protect you and we will. Don't worry about us." She pushed the link button again and heard muffled talking.

"Alex? You and Sunny still fighting?"

"No, how much longer?"

"ETA to the base is forty five earth minutes." Sunstreaker's voice came over the radio. Optimus had optioned to have the twins take them to a nearby air force base for protection, where they would guard them and send out Raptors if needed. But they weren't safe until they got there. Charlie rung her hands together in nervousness, no matter what everyone kept on saying she knew everything wouldn't be okay everything would be different after today.

"Sides turn up the heat I'm cold." She always got cold when she was scared. "Sides?" No response. "Sideswipe what's wrong?"

"Something's coming up on our side and fast." Charlie barely had time to look out the window and see a police cruiser barreling towards them.

"It's Barricade!" Sideswipe spun his wheel as fast as he could and pulled a 270 right as Barricade was about to T-bone him, neither he nor Sunstreaker would be able to transform and fight him, not with the girls in them. He had to just keep moving and try to out run him. If he made it to the air force base then the military would slag Barricade for sure. He didn't like the plan, in fact he hated the idea of running from a decepticon, he would rather stay and fight, but Charlie's safety came first.

"Sunstreaker I need backup!" Sunstreaker sped up and tried to catch up with Sideswipe and cut off Barricade, trying to out run him and get to his brother. Alex tugged on her seat belt and kept one hand on her null ray gun. The twins wouldn't be able to fire on Barricade, but that didn't mean she couldn't. Suddenly she felt the ground rumbling beneath Sunstreaker, that wasn't good.

"Sunstreaker what was that? You felt it right?" He didn't get a chance to respond before the ground started shaking more violently and she was jostled around and hit her head on the driver's side window.

"Ow." She held her head and looking up, saw the ground split open in front of them. A huge shape leapt from the massive hole, blocking out the moonlight. She caught a glimpse of red optics before it flipped around, and a huge tail smashed the ground in front of them, sending Sunstreaker onto his side wheels. Alex gasped as Sunstreaker righted himself and spun around, ramping over a massive piece of uprooted asphalt.

"What is that thing?!" Sunstreaker swerved off the road and Charlie and Sideswipe were lost from sight.

"It's Scorponok, but I thought he was dead!"

"Does he look dead to you?" Alex pushed the link button and heard Charlie yelling.

"Charlie, where are you guys?" Sunstreaker was dodging pine trees and Alex hit her head on the dash. "I—ow!"

"We're on the road, Barricade's on our trail! You----" And there was static. Alex pressed the button and yelled when Sunstreaker almost hit a tree, Scorponok was right behind them, knocking down trees as he went.

"We lost them, I can't make radio contact!"

"We're on our own, when I tell you go, tuck and roll, got it?" Alex nodded and held her gun tight to her body, she knew what was about to happen, she needed to jump out of Sunstreaker and fast. If he slowed down or stopped Scorponok would catch them.

"GO!" She dove out of Sunstreaker and rolled about fifteen feet, when she stopped she looked up and saw Sunstreaker diving at Scorponok head first. She pushed herself off the ground, panting. Her jeans were smeared with grass stains, and she grabbed her gun and stood up. Sunstreaker had Scorponok's head under his arm, but his tail kept making stabs at him and he couldn't keep him there. His tail hit him upside the head and he flew backward through a tree. Alex aimed and shot Scorponok's left flank, he paused before turning toward her. He zeroed in on her and she screamed. Sunstreaker leapt up and grabbed his tail, swinging him around before sending him flying.

"Take cover, run!" He ran over to her and she shook her head.

"And go where? There's nothing around here!"

"Figure something out!"

"Oh great that's what I'll do, maybe I'll just build myself a little fort and blockade myself in there while you fight a giant scorpion! Yeah that'll be great." Before he could respond Scorponok made another lunge at Alex.

"No you don't!" He tackled him to the ground and tried to hold him there.

"Run!" Alex didn't, instead she grabbed her gun tried to take aim at Scorponok, Sunstreaker was fed up. "Slag it Alex for once in your life listen to me and get to safety I don't know what I would do if you got hurt!" She was stunned, did he actually care, really care? She lowered her gun and cursed. She ran through the nearest trees and hid behind the largest one. Her hoodie snagged on a branch and ripped, her jeans had holes in them, and her hair was everywhere. She heard Sunstreaker firing and hoped he took that damn scorpion out. She redid her hair and peeked behind the tree. She glimpsed yellow armor and ran back into the clearing. He was standing still. She ran over and touched his leg. He had some dents and quite a lot of dirt on him. He started when he felt her hand.

"Hey, no, don't come back!" Alex whipped her head around.

"But he's gone! Did he run away?" She walked a little ways away and looked around, her gun in her hand.

"No, he's not! Now lea---" And he froze. Alex felt the ground rumble and looked down at her feet; she looked up just as she heard Sunstreaker yell. She didn't move. She couldn't. But she knew what happened. _He was behind her._

Sunstreaker leapt at her and shoved her out of the way. She went flying and rolled when she hit the ground, landing next to one of the trees he had taken down. She stood up shakily and screamed. Scorponok had burst from the ground behind her, but instead of stabbing her, he got Sunstreaker right through the chest. Both of them stood still, the giant scorpion's tail going right through her guardian. He looked shocked.

Everything slowed down, Alex thought she was going to be sick, she heard someone screaming and vaguely recognized it as her own voice. She felt something wet on her face and realized they were tears, she stopped thinking and ran. She ran as fast as she could towards Sunstreaker, she didn't care if she was running to her death, she didn't care that Scorponok would probably kill her before she reached him, all she cared about was Sunstreaker and he was hurt and possibly dying all because of her. She didn't listen and now he was going to die. No, this wasn't happening, this couldn't be happening, not to Sunstreaker, not when she finally figured it out, this wasn't fair he was trying to protect her! She finally reached his side and collapsed on her knees next to him.

"No, no, no damn it Sunny! Why did you do that? You didn't need to do that! Why? Why? Now you're gonna…now you're going to…Sunstreaker why? I was awful to you, I was awful and nasty and cruel to you and you just saved me."

"Shut up, your tears are going to tarnish my finish." Alex stopped crying.

"Sunstreaker?"

"The one and only." She almost laughed in relief, but it was short lived. Scorponok was coming to finish the job. He scuttled toward them, triumphant, his red optics gleaming, when a blast from nowhere caught his side. He shrieked and whipped around, and Alex did the same. Who had come to their rescue?

"Get down." Sunstreaker shakily pulled her down on the other side of him, so she was safe from the blasts. She rubbed her eyes and sniffled. Even if he wasn't dead, he was still hurt because of her. A final laser blast sent Scorponok screaming back under ground. He was gone. They heard footsteps and Mirage's white and blue form appeared in the clearing, his gun smoking. He stood still for a second, then turned and walked over to them. Alex stood up but kept a hand on Sunstreaker. Tears were still flowing unchecked down her face. What was Mirage doing here? How did he know they were in trouble?

"Mirage?" Mirage looked down at her, scanning for injuries. Sunstreaker coughed up energon when he started talking.

"Get her out of here." Alex gasped, she couldn't leave he was hurt, she wouldn't leave. Mirage was hesitant.

"You're injured." Sunstreaker coughed up more energon and his optics dimmed slightly.

"Get her out of here, he could still come back, she's in danger."

"NO! I'm not leaving Sunny you're hurt we'll call Ratchet, he'll come here and fix you up, but I'm not leaving." He didn't pay any attention to her, he just looked at Mirage and said something in a high pitched tone with clicks and beeps, it reminded her of metal grating on itself and wondered if this was their native language.

"You're right." Mirage picked her up and started walking away.

"What are you doing?! He's hurt! He's your comrade! Put me down, I'm not leaving Sunstreaker! NO!" She was sobbing loudly and trying to get out of Mirage's grasp. "PUT ME DOWN!! NO! SUNSTREAKER!!!!! DAMN IT MIRAGE WHY!? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!!!?" She was sobbing so hard now that neither bot could make out her words, she continued fighting Mirage as he activated his holoform and placed her in his vehicle mode. She tried opening the door and jumping out, but Mirage stopped her again. Why was he just leaving him? They were friends right, comrades at least. You don't leave someone behind in war. Why was Mirage doing this, what did Sunstreaker say to him?

Mirage tried to block out the cries of the hysterical girl riding with him, it wasn't like this. He'd never seen her cry before, and it was breaking his spark, but she didn't understand. Sunstreaker's words kept playing in his head '_Get her to safety, I know you need her.'_ Mirage was confused, but the more he thought about the more he realized Sunstreaker was right, he cared about very few people other then himself and Alex was one of them.

"He's on your left Sides!" Sideswipe lived up to his name and slammed into Barricade, tearing up both of their sides. Barricade spun out of control and Sideswipe took the opportunity to speed up and try to get away. He was worried about Sunstreaker, he was nowhere to be seen, and he couldn't get him over the radio. Sunny could handle Scorponok, but they always fought together, this was different and it felt wrong to him. He was shaken out of his thoughts by Charlie.

"He's coming back, and fast!" Charlie watched as the police cruiser rushed after them, he was just as fast as Sideswipe, if not faster, and she was scared. She saw whatever it was attack Alex and Sunstreaker and almost flip him, and now this decepticon was trying to prevent them from getting to the air force base and sending reinforcements. She knew if he caught up he would kill them, she knew getting involved with the autobots might get her killed, but even now when she could see her killer she still couldn't wrap her mind around it. This wasn't good, no this was really, really bad, and she was scared. She closed her eyes and took and shaky breath, she opened her eyes and saw the stars in the sky. She didn't even think about it, if Sideswipe was willing to risk his life for her, then she would risk her life for him. She rolled down the window and pulled her gun out of its holster.

"No sudden movements okay?" Half of her body was out the window by now.

"What are you doing? Get back in!"

"Shut up Sides." She took aim and fired, hitting Barricades tires and stopping the front axels in mid movement, his back tires still spinning, causing him to flip upside down.

"Great shot kid! Nice aim!" She pulled back into Sideswipe and rubbed the back of her head.

"Actually I was aiming for his engine." Sideswipe started laughing, and Charlie joined him, the cop was stopped and now she and Sideswipe would be able to tell the air force to send in the raptors.

"Let's go kid we've got stuff to do!" She could hear the smile in his voice, suddenly everything changed and there was a tangible shift in the atmosphere.

"Sideswipe?"

"SUNNY!"

"Sideswipe what's wrong what's going on?" He cranked his steering wheel and turned, going in the direction they came from, driving as fast as he could, he barely heard Charlie's cries.

"Sideswipe!"

"He's hurt! Sunstreaker's hurt!" She knew he wasn't talking to her, he was just speaking out loud trying to grasp what had just happened, Sunstreaker was hurt and judging by Sideswipe's actions it was bad. She knew humans twins could often tell when the other was hurt or in trouble, but transformer twins seemed to have that ability one hundred fold, it seemed like Sideswipe himself was the one in pain. She froze, if Sunstreaker was hurt, what about Alex?

"Hurry!"

"Jazz, report!" Jazz ran to Optimus's position behind a large rock face, where the snipers were firing. Bluestreak was right next to him, focusing on the casseticons.

"It ain't good man, Soundwave's crazy! He's got Bonecrusher and Long Haul focusing on Ironhide, they want him out, and he ain't doing so hot. Everyone's holding their own, but barely. I've never seen him like this before. And Optimus, Mirage still isn't reporting, I can't find him." Optimus sighed, Wheeljack had been caught by surprise by Ravage and Ratbat, and he had ordered Mirage to cover him….only to have nothing happen. He had disappeared.

"Fine. Get Hound over here, tell Blackfire to move left, I'm going in."

"Affirmative." Jazz raced off, dodging blaster fire, and Optimus turned to nod at Bluestreak.

"Cover Ironhide, then go with Ratchet. I need someone covering him." Bluestreak nodded and shot a well aimed round at Hook, who snarled, allowing Dead End and Drag Strip to get him on the ground. Optimus focused his optics through the trees and located Blackfire, who was fighting off Mixmaster and dodging fire from Laserbeak. It looked like Soundwave wanted to take out the troops before focusing on his revenge, weaken him, then finish him off. Optimus charged in that direction. Though they may be on opposing sides, in this battle, they were allies. And Optimus never let his troops down.

"Mirage?" Alex's sobs had subsided and now she wanted answers. "What were you doing there? Weren't you supposed to be at the battle? How did you know we were in trouble? Sunstreaker didn't send a distress signal. Where are we going? Mirage talk to me!"

"I'm getting you to safety."

"There's no place that's safe anymore. Have you contacted Ratchet? Tell him Sunny's down, why aren't you contacting him? You left him the least you can do is get Ratchet to him! You abandoned him!"

"I have to make sure you're safe."

"Why? Why do you care? WHY ARE YOU LETTING SUNSTREAKER DIE!" She kicked his dash board in desperation, why didn't he help Sunstreaker? "YOU SON OF A BITCH!" The tears started falling again. He sighed and was silent. She watched as he shifted and went into cruise control. A light on the dash turned on and she blinked. It said 'auto'. It was at that moment a man appeared in the seat next to her. He had blazing blue eyes and an angular face with long blonde hair held back at the nape of his neck. He was wearing a tight gray sweater that showed off his built form and when he looked in her eyes she shivered. He was beautiful.

"I----" But he held a finger to her lips and she stopped. He wiped her tears away and she looked ahead. They were still weaving in and out of traffic on the highway, and yet, if she was right, Mirage was sitting right next to her.

"I have the set the coordinates in my navigation system with my radar set to avoid other vehicles. I'm still in control." She sniffled again and her eyes widened when he pulled her over to him. "I failed you one time Alex, and I swear to Primus that I will never fail you again." He wiped the tears from her face and smiled at her, she looked up at him and he pulled her into the crook of his neck and placed his head on top of hers, rubbing her back and trying to calm her down. He was warm and she leaned into him. She didn't know how long they stayed like that, but for the first time all day she felt safe.

"Mirage." She reluctantly pulled away and looked at him, he didn't say anything, just looked into her green eyes and started leaning in, her breath quickened and she could feel the blood rushing to her face. Their lips were almost touching when he slammed on the brakes. His holoform disappeared and she gasped. A blue jeep had stopped right in front of them and honked its horn.

"Hey!! Mirage, I---Alex, is that you?" A boy had opened the passenger door of the jeep and had jumped out and ran over to them. It was Sam. Alex unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door and jumped out. Sam stopped.

"Whoa, you look terrible! What happened, where is everybody?" He looked panicked and a girl with long brown hair jumped out of the driver's seat and came up to them.

"Are you okay? Where's Optimus?" Sam grabbed her and Alex realized this must be the famous Mikaela. She swallowed.

"Umm, hey, we haven't met yet, I'm Alex and I think I wore your clothes awhile. Then they got blown up." Mikaela looked at her oddly.

"Ummm, that's okay. What's going on?" Alex turned to Mirage and his voice was heard over the radio.

"Soundwave has attacked the base. Her guardian is down and I am getting her to safety." They both gasped.

"Sunstreaker? What happened, where's Bumblebee?" Sam was freaking out, he obviously cared for Bumblebee a lot. She shook her head.

"He stayed at the base, we got cut off. Well, me and Sunny did." She looked at the ground and willed herself not to cry. Now wasn't the time. Mirage spoke for her.

"They were attacked by Scorponok, who managed to regenerate his tail. He was injured and ordered me as her guardian to get her to safety." She could feel Sam and Mikaela staring at her. She was thankful he didn't tell them it was her fault. She just couldn't take that right now.

"Is he alright?" She didn't say anything, she couldn't, Sam knew what her silence meant and decided to change the subject. "What about Charlie?"

"I don't know where she is, Sideswipe and her were being chased by a decepticon police cruiser when we were attacked."

"Barricade." Mikaela spat, and Alex suddenly wondered why they were here. Mirage looked at the teenagers and decided Alex would be safe with them, Sam and Mikaela had been in battle before.

"I am returning to the battle, I'm needed." He looked directly at Alex as he spoke, she remembered their earlier moment and touched his door.

"Thank you." Mirage regarded her one more time before rolling out. She watched him leave until she could no longer see him, then turned to Sam and Mikaela.

"Why are you two here?"

"Bee left us when he was called up here-" Mikaela took over.

"We wouldn't be left beh-"

"So we took Mikaela's car and drove up here to help out." Alex smirked.

"Well you came just in time." She shifted her gun. "We've got some autobots to help." Sam and Mikaela nodded and climbed into the jeep. Mikaela started the engine and they shot off into the night

.


End file.
